PR 

■kZTs 



Th|e ACAD6NJY S6RieS OF 
6NGLISH CLASSICS 



P R 

\*2 1 





Shakespeare 
Macbeth 



ITED BY 

THURBER 



»»>t«<« ° 



ALLYN AND BACON 




Class ; . 

Book, 

COHttUGHT 



gDljr gcaftcmu S rrtrg of Encjiislj Classirs 

SHAKESPEARE 



Macbeth 



EDITED BY 

SAMUEL THURBER 









MAY 4 1896/ 



% 



Boston 

ALLYN AND BACON 



\ 






.A*T<r 



Copyright, 1S96, by 
SAMUEL THURBER 



^Wv^\ v 



Typography by Rockwell & Churchill, Boston, Mass. 
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass. 



PREFACE. 



The longer I teach English literature, the clearer grows 
my conviction that what young students of this subject 
need is guidance and stimulus to self-help rather than 
large supplies of direct information. Hence I have 
always disapproved, — and I disapprove to-day more 
strongly than ever, — of the practice of appending to 
English texts full elucidations of the difficulties that may 
check a reader's progress. Eor I believe that for a reader 
to have his progress checked, and to find himself reduced 
to the necessity of thinking, investigating, comparing 
and remembering, is educationally a most wholesome 
and desirable consummation. A recitation abounding in 
prompt and correct answers, furnished forth from the 
stores of the memory, is a thing to be guarded against : 
its smoothness is a delusion and a snare. The matter in 
hand is to receive light from many sources. The peda- 
gogic art consists in focusing upon a point as many rays 
as a score or two of vigorous and prepared minds can give 
out from their stores of discoveries and conjectures. 

In accordance with these convictions I have prepared 
this edition of Macbeth. Conceding so much to custom 
and convenience, I have called by the name of notes a 
body of matter which I have added to the text of the play : 
but it will be seen that these notes are, strictly, not notes 
at all in the conventional sense, but rather queries; not 
giving answers, but calling for them ; prompting to vigi- 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

lance, rather than begetting heedlessness by making vigi- 
lance unnecessary. Long habituation to information- 
giving notes fosters that feeling of security which is 
mortals' chiefest enemy. The habit of querying and 
responding to queries issues in scholarship. The scholar 
knows how to go to work. He has begun to feel at home 
in literature. He has learned to carry his difficulty in 
his mind for a season, knowing that its solution is sure. 

My notes therefore are queries ; with here and there a 
conventional note to set forth a point I deemed too remote 
from the range of search possible to youth. I have 
printed here a considerable number of the questions I 
would ask, and the topics for exploration I would assign, 
on the play of Macbeth. By no means, however, would 
I be understood as having exhausted, — or come any- 
where near exhausting, — the stock of possible class-room 
questioning on this play. It will be easy to think of 
knotty Shakespearian problems much more perplexing 
than any I have broached. I may say, however, that I 
have meant, by my queries, to indicate how far it seems 
to me in high schools desirable to push the discussion of 
Shakespearian difficulties. The scope of possible query- 
ing among the easier subjects is of course practically 
unlimited. 

To facilitate juvenile research in Shakespeare, the first 
requisite is free access to the Globe edition of the poet's 
works. The school should possess Globes enough for the 
pupils to use without restriction, some carrying the books 
home at night, and others finding their chance in the 
study hours. The Crowell Globe Shakespeare is not a 
handsome book, but it is cheap. The Macmillan Globe 
costs twice as much and is all of twice as good. 



PREFACE. V 

It will be seen that I have laid emphasis on the study 
of Shakespeare's rhythm. The study of English metric 
has been, in secondary education, most grievously neg- 
lected. I find that an ear for rhythm, even in communi- 
ties reputed highly cultivated, and especially devoted to 
music, is almost non-existent. Multitudes of girls play 
the piano : but hardly one in a hundred reads verse. 
Multitudes sing : but the speaking voice has run wild, 
and rarely betrays literary culture. This is a defect in 
our education which I do not perceive that our pedagog- 
ical theorists recognize or care about. 

But whatever may be the case in educational theory, 
in literary study it is to be said that vocal expression, 
the faculty of surrender to verse movement, the power to 
modulate the voice in harmony with the artistic presen- 
tation of emotion, is an element of culture of the very 
first importance. Notes and queries will be of but slight 
avail in the teaching of the art of vocal expression. 
Nothing will suffice here but the skill of the teacher in 
opening to responsive minds the secrets of poetic mean- 
ing, and in setting the living example with his own voice. 

What seemed feasible in printed note or query I have, 
within the limited scope of my plan, undertaken to do. 
The Shakespearian verse is normally iambic with five 
accents. Departures from this norm, except in the con- 
fessed short lines, are rare, unless the poet has an obvious 
dramatic purpose to subserve by a change of rhythm. 
Thus there has been frequent occasion for calling atten- 
tion to peculiarities of the Shakespearian verse manage- 
ment, and, occasionally, for warning against misplacement 
of emphasis, or against conceiving a speech wrongly as 
regards its tone. 



VI PREFACE. 

Pupils genuinely interested in a play will naturally 
desire to distribute roles, commit the parts to memory, 
and enact scenes. For this exercise opportunity should 
be given to the fullest possible extent. If young people 
are expected to resort to laboratories and perform experi- 
ments in physics and chemistry, by precisely equal rights 
and for similar purposes they should mount the stage and 
assume the Shakespearian characters. The one proced- 
ure is as serious, as genuine, as deeply related to culture, 
as the other. The prepossession by which we regard a 
chemical experiment as serious business, and a histrionic 
experiment as merely amusing, worthy only of an hour 
after the school session is over, is an unfounded prejudice 
which must be overcome before we can begin to have 
great improvement in reading in our schools. 

To aid in some measure the assignment of parts, I have 
given at the end of the book a list of the persons of the 
drama, with the scenes in which they appear. 

As all high school pupils study some foreign language, 
ancient or modern, and a few are studying Old English, 
I have considered it right to give, on occasion, a note or a 
query of a purely philological nature. Pupils like, very 
reasonably, to apply to any subject the knowledge they 
have gained in some other subject. When their Latin, 
their German, or their French will throw light on a 
Shakespearian word or phrase, they should turn aside 
from questions purely dramatic, to discuss a point of phi- 
lology. It is strange how some Shakespearians have 
dreaded the study of the poet's language, as if this study 
threw a blight upon appreciation of his literary art. 
Some Latin and French being taken for granted, the best 
preparation for the study of Shakespeare is an acquaint- 



PREFACE. VI 1 

ance with the pre-Elizabethan language and literature ; 
and though high school pupils will seldom have this 
knowledge, the teacher certainly always should. 

Macbeth is usually read early in the school course, and 
classes occupied with this tragedy will ordinarily have 
read only one or two other plays. Where this is the case, 
it will be unprofitable to undertake much comparative 
study of plays with plays, or to enter largely upon con- 
sideration of the development of the poet's language and 
versification in the successive stages of his career. These 
subjects are extremely interesting, but in their very 
nature imply the possession of more data of knowledge 
than the beginner can possibly command. The habit of 
reading without understanding, or of accepting results 
without having followed the processes by which the 
results were reached, is not to be commended. 

The main thing in dealing with a play of Shakespeare 
in school is to induce pupils to read it forcibly and sym- 
pathetically ; to enable them to perceive and appreciate 
the development of character in the chief personages, and 
to describe this development in appropriate terms ; to 
teach them to note the collisions of passions and interests, 
and the effects of these collisions on human careers ; to 
let them repeat the majestic language till it sinks indel- 
ibly into the memory ; to lead them to study the poet's 
unapproachable diction till they come to feel, at least in 
some slight degree, what is the inexpressible and elusive 
secret of poetry itself. 

Samuel Thurber. 

Girls' High School, 

Boston, March, 1896. 



MACBETH. 



DRAMATIS 

Duncan, king of Scotland. 

Malcolm, i , . 

-. ) his sous. 

DONALBAIN, ) 

Macbeth, i generals of the 

Banquo, \ army. 

Macduff, ^ 

Lennox, 

Ross, 

Menteith, 

Angus, 

Caithness,, 

Fleance, son to Banquo. 

Siward, Earl of Northumberland, gen- 
eral of the English forces. 

Young Siward, his son. 

Setton, an officer attending on Mac- 
beth. 

Boy, son to Macduff. 



kinar't 



noblemen of Scotland. 



PERSONS. 

An English Doctor. 
A Scotch Doctor. 
A Soldier. 
A Porter. 
An Old Man. 

Lady Macbeth. 
Lady Macduff. 

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Mac- 
beth. 

Hecate. 

Three Witches. 

Apparitions. 

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, 
Murderers, Attendants, and Messen- 
gers. 

Scene : Scotland ; England. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. A desert place. 
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again 
In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 

Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, 
When the battle ? s lost and won. 

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 

First Witch. Where the place ? 

Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! 



z MACBETH. 

Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 

Third Witch. Anon. 10 

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair : 
Hover through the fog and filthy air. \Exeunt. 

Scene II. A camp near Forres. 
Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- 

bain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding 

Sergeant. 

Dun. What bloody man is that ? He can report, 
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
The newest state. 

Mai. This is the sergeant 

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 
'G-ainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 
As thou didst leave it. 

Ser. Doubtful it stood ; 

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — 
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 10 

The multiplying villanies of nature 
Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; 
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 
Showed like a rebel's whore : but all 's too weak : 
For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, 
Which smoked with bloody execution, 
Like valor's minion carved out his passage 
Till he faced the slave ; 20 

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 



ACT I. SCENE II. 3 

Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps, 
And fixed his head upon our battlements. 

Dun. valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 

Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, 
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come 
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : 
No sooner justice had with valor armed 
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30 
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, 
With furbished arms and new supplies of men 
Began a fresh assault. 

■Dun. Dismayed not this 

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ? 

Ser. Yes ; 

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 
If I say sooth, I must report they were 
As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they 
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : 
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 
Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 

I cannot tell. 
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
They smack of honor both. G-o get him surgeons. 

[Exit Sergeant, attended. 
Who comes here ? 

Enter B-oss. 

Mai. The worthy thane of Ross. 

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes ! 
So should he look 
That seems to speak things strange. 



4 MACBETH. 

Boss. God save the king ! 

Dun. Whence earnest thou, worthy thane ? 

Boss. From Fife, great king ; 

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 50 

With terrible numbers, 
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; 
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof, 
Confronted him with self-comparisons, 
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, 
Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude, 
The victory fell on us. 

Dun. Great happiness ! 

Boss. That now 

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 
Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 

Till he disbursed at St. Colme's inch 
Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 
Our bosom interest : go pronounce his present death, 
And with his former title greet Macbeth. 

Boss. I '11 see it done. 

Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 

\_Exeunt. 
Scene III. A heath near Forres. 

Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 
First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ? 
Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 
Third Witch. Sister, where thou ? 
First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her 
lap, 



ACT I. SCENE III. 5 

And munched, and munched, and munched : — ( Give 

me,' quoth I : 
' Aroint thee, witch ! ' the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : 
But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, 
And, like a rat without a tail, 
I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. 10 

Sec. Witch. I '11 give thee a wind. 

First Witch. Thou 'rt kind. 

Third Witch. And I another. 

First Witch. I myself have all the other, 
And the very ports they blow, 
All the quarters that they know 
I' the shipman's card. 
I will drain him dry as hay : 
Sleep shall neither night nor day 

Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 20 

He shall live a man forbid : 
Weary se'nnights nine times nine 
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine : 
Though his bark cannot be lost, 
Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 
Look what I have. 

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 
Wrecked as homeward he did come. [Drum within. 

Third Witch. A drum, a drum! 30 

Macbeth doth come. 

All. The weircl sisters, hand in hand, 
Posters of the sea and land, 
Thus do go about, about : 
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 



6 MACBETH. 

And thrice again, to make up nine. 
Peace ! the charm 's wound up. 

Enter Macbeth and Banquo. 

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. 

Ban. How far is 't called to Forres ? What are these 
So withered and so wild in their attire, 40 

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, 
And yet are on 't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
That man may question ? You seem to understand me, 
By each at once her chappy finger laying 
Upon her skinny lips : you should be women, 
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
That you are so. 

Macb. Speak, if you can : what are you ? 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
Glamis ! 

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
Cawdor ! 

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king 
hereafter ! 50 

Ban. Good sir, why do you start ; and seem to fear 
Things that do sound so fair ? I' the name of truth, 
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
You greet with present grace and great prediction 
Of noble having and of royal hope, 
That he seems rapt withal : to me you speak not. 
If you can look into the seeds of time, 
And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 

Your favors nor your hate. 



ACT I. SCENE III. 7 

First Witch. Hail! 

Sec Witch. Hail! 

Third Witch. Hail! 

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 

Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet nruch happier. 

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be 
none : 
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me 
more : 70 

By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis ; 
But how of Cawdor ? the thane of Cawdor lives, 
A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king 
Stands not within the prospect of belief, 
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 
You owe this strange intelligence ? or why 
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 
With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 

[ Witches vanish. 

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished ? 80 

Macb. Into the air ; and what seemed corporal melted 
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed ! 

Ban, Were such things here as we do speak about ? 
Or have we eaten on the insane root 
That takes the reason prisoner ? 

Macb. Your children shall be kings. 

Ban. You shall be king. 

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 

Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who 's here ? 



8 MACBETH. 

Enter Ross and Angus. 

Boss. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, 
The news of thy success ; and when he reads 90 

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 
His wonders and his praises do contend 
Which should be thine or his : silenced with that, 
In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, 
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
Strange images of death. As thick as hail 
Came post with post ; and every one did bear 
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
And poured them down before him. 

Ang. We are sent 100 

To give thee from our royal master thanks ; 
Only to herald thee into his sight, 
Not pay thee. 

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honor, 
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor : 
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! 
For it is thine. 

Ban. What, can the devil speak true ? 

Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you dress 
me 
In borrowed robes ? 

Ang. Who was the thane lives yet ; 

But under heavy judgment bears that life no 

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined 
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
He labored in his country's wreck, I know not ; 



ACT I. SCENE III. 9 

But treasons capital, confessed and proved, 
Have overthrown him. 

Much. [Aside] G-lamis, and thane of Cawdor ! 
The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus'] Thanks 

for your pains. 
[To Ban.] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, 
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 
Promised no less to them ? 

Ban. That trusted home 120 

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, 
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange : 
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 
The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 
In deepest consequence. 
Cousins, a word, I pray you. 

Macb. [Aside] Two truths are told, 

As happy prologues to the swelling act 
Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. 
[Aside] This supernatural soliciting 130 

Cannot be ill, cannot be good : if ill, 
Why hath it given me earnest of success, 
Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : 
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
Against the use of nature ? Present fears 
Are less than horrible imaginings : 
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 
Shakes so my single state of man that function 140 

Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is 
But what is not. 



10 MACBETH. 

Ban. Look, how our partner 's rapt. 

Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, 
chance may crown me, 
Without my stir. 

Ban. New honors come upon him, 

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 
But with the aid of use. 

Macb. [Aside] Come what come may, 

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 

Macb. Give me your favor : my dull brain was 
wrought 
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 
Are registered where every day I turn 
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. 
Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, 
The interim having weighed it, let us speak 
Our free hearts each to other. 

Ban. Very gladly. 

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. Forres. The palace. 

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, 
Lennox, and Attendants. 

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
Those in commission yet returned ? 

Mai. My liege, 

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
With one that saw him die : who did report 
That very frankly he confessed his treasons, 
Implored your highness' pardon and set forth 
A deep repentance : nothing in his life 



ACT I. SCENE IV. 11 

Became him like the leaving it ; he died 

As one that had been studied in his death 

To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 10 

As 't were a careless trifle. 

Dun. There 's no art 

To find the mind's construction in the face : 
He was a gentleman on whom I built 
An absolute trust. 

Enter Macbeth, BAnquo, Koss, and Angus. 

worthiest cousin ! 
The sin of my ingratitude even now 
Was heavy on me : thou art so far before 
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 
That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
Might have been mine ! only I have left to say, 20 

More is thy due than more than all can pay. 

Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe, 
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 
Is to receive our duties ; and our duties 
Are to your throne, and state children and servants, 
Which do but what they should, by doing every thing 
Safe toward your love and honor. 

Dun. Welcome hither : 

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor 
To make thee full of growing. Noble Ban quo, 
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 30 

No less to have done so, let me infold thee 
And hold thee to my heart. 

Ban. There if I grow, 

The harvest is your own. 



12 MACBETH. 

Dim. My plenteous joys, 

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 
And you whose places are the nearest, know 
We will establish our estate upon 
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
The Prince of Cumberland ; which honor must 
Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
And bind us further to you. 

Marb. The rest is labor, which is not used for you : 
I '11 be myself the harbinger and make joyful 
The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
So humbly take my leave. 

Dun. My worthy Cawdor ! 

Macb. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland ! that is 
a step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ; 50 

Let not light see my black and deep desires : 
The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be, 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. 

Dun. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 
And in his commendations I am fed ; 
It is a banquet to me. Let 's after him, 
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : 
It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt. 



ACT I. SCENE V. 13 

Scene V. Inverness. Macbeth 1 s castle. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. 

Lady M. < They met me in the clay of success ; and I 
have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in 
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire 
to question them further, they made themselves air, into 
which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder 
of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me 
" Thane of Cawdor ; " by which title, before, these 
weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming 
on of time, with " Hail, king that shalt be ! " This have 
I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of 
greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoic- 
ing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised 
thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.' 

Glands thou art, and Cawdor ; and shalt be 

What thou art promised : yet do I fear thy nature ; 

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness 

To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; 

Art not without ambition, but without 20 

The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, 

That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 

And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou 'ldst have, great 

Glamis, 
That which cries ' Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; 
And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither, 
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; 
And chastise with the valor of my tongue 
All that impedes thee from the golden round, 



14 MACBETH. 

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 30 

To have thee crowned withal. 

Enter a Messenger. 

What is yonr tidings ? 

Mess. The king comes here to-night. 

Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it : 

Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so ; 
Would have informed for preparation. 

Mess. So please you, it is true : our thane is coming : 
One of my fellows had the speed of him, 
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
Than would make up his message. 

Lady M. Give him tending ; 

He brings great news. [Exit Messenger. 

The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 40 

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, 
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 
Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; 
Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 
That no compunctious visitings of nature 
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, 
Wherever in your sightless substances 50 

You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
To cry < Hold, hold ! ' 



ACT I. SCENE VI. 15 

Enter Macbeth. 

Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor ! 
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 
Thy letters have transported rne beyond 
This ignorant present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant. 

Macb. My dearest love, 

Duncan comes here to-night. 

Lady M. And when goes hence ? 60 

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 

Lady M. 0, never 

Shall sun that morrow see ! 
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 
Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower, 
But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming 
Must be provided for : and you shall put 
This night's great business into my dispatch ; 
Which shall to all our nights and days to come 70 

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 

Macb. We will speak further. 

Lady M. Only look up clear ; 

To alter favor ever is to fear : 
Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Before Macbeth' s castle. 
Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Don- 

albain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, 

and Attendants. 

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 



16 MACBETH. 

Ban. This guest of summer, 

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Dun. See, see, our honored hostess ! 10 

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, 
And thank us for your trouble. 

Lady M. All our service 

In every point twice done and then done double 
Were poor and single business to contend 
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith 
Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 
And the late dignities heaped up to them, 
We rest your hermits. 

Dun. Where ? s the thane of Cawdor ? 20 

We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 
To be his purveyor : but he rides well ; 
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 
We are your guests to-night. 

Lady M. Your servants ever 

Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt, 
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, 
Still to return your own. 



ACT I. SCENE VII. 17 

Dun. G-ive me your hand ; 

Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 

By your leave, hostess. [Exeunt. 

Scene VII. Macbeth's castle. 
Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Ser- 
vants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. 
Then enter Macbeth. 

Macb. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were 
well 
It were done quickly : if the assassination 
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
With his surcease success ; that but this blow 
Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
We 'Id jump the life to come. But in these cases 
We still have judgment here ; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
To our own lips. He 's here in double trust ; 
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 
Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 
Who should against his murderer shut the door, 
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 20 

And pity, like a naked new-born babe, 
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed 



18 MACBETH. 

Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 

To prick the sides of my intent, but only 

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 

And falls on the other. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

How now ! what news ? 

Lady M. He has almost supped : why have you left 
the chamber ? 

Macb. Hath he asked for me ? 

Lady M. Know you not he has ? 30 

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business : 
He hath honored me of late ; and I have bought 
Golden opinions from all sorts of people, 
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
Not cast aside so soon. 

Lady M. Was the hope drunk 

Wherein you dressed yourself ? hath it slept since ? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
At what it did so freely ? From this time 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
To be the same in thine own act and valor 40 

As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 
Which thou esteem' st the ornament of life, 
And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
Letting < I dare not ' wait upon * I would/ 
Like the poor cat i' the adage ? 

Macb. Prithee, peace : 

I dare do all that may become a man j 
Who dares do more is none. 



ACT I SCENE VII. 19 

Lady M. What beast was 't, then, 

That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
And, to be more than what you were, you would 50 

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me : 
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, 
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
Have done to this. 

Mad). If we should fail ? 

Lady. M. We fail ! 

But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 60 

And we '11 not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 
Will I with wine and wassail so convince 
That memory, the warder of the brain, 
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
A limbeck only : when in swinish sleep 
Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 
What cannot you and I perform upon 
The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon *70 

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 
Of our great quell ? 

Macb. Bring forth men-children only ; 

For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two 



20 MACBETH. 

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, 
That they have done 't ? 

Lady M. Who dares receive it other, 

As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar 
Upon his death ? 

Macb. I am settled, and bend up 

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. 80 

Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

\Exeunt. 

ACT II. 

Scene I. Court of Macbeth's castle. 

Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before 

It 'on . 

Ban. How goes the night, boy ? 

Fie. The moon is down 5 I have not heard the clock. 

Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 

Fie. I take 't, 't is later, sir. 

Ban. Hold, take my sword. There 's husbandry in 
heaven ; 
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
And yet I would not sleep : merciful powers, 
Eestrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
Gives way to in repose ! 

Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch. 

Give me my sword. 
Who 's there ? 10 

Macb. A friend. 
Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The king 's a-bed : 



ACT II. SCENE I. 21 

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 

Sent forth great largess to your offices. 

This diamond he greets your wife withal, 

By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 

In measureless content. 

Macb. Being unprepared, 

Our will became the servant to defect ; 
Which else should free have wrought. 

Ban. All 's well. 

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 20 

To you they have showed some truth. 

Macb. I think not of them : 

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
We would spend it in some words upon that business, 
If you would grant the time. 

Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is, 
It shall make honor for you. 

Ban. So I lose none 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 
I shall be counselled. 

Macb. Good repose the while ! 

Ban. Thanks, sir : the like to you ! 30 

\_Exeu7it Banquo and Fleance. 

Macb. G-o bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, 
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 

[Exit Servant. 
Is this a dagger which I see before me, 
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch 

thee. 
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 



22 MACBETH. 

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 

To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 

A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 

I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 

As this which now I draw. 

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going ; 

And such an instrument I was to use. 

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, 

Or else worth all the rest ; I see thee still, 

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 

Which was not so before. There 's no such thing : 

It is the bloody business which informs 

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half -world 

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 

The curtained sleep ; witchcraft celebrates 

Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder, 

Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, 

Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, 

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, 

And take the present horror from the time, 

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 60 

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 

\_A bell rings. 
I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me. 
Hear it not, Duncan ; for it is a knell 
That summons thee to heaven or to hell. \_Exit. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 23 

Scene II. The same. 
Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath 
made me bold ; 
What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark ! 

Peace ! 
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, 
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 
Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugged their 

possets. 
That death and nature do contend about them, 
Whether they live or die. 

Macb. [ Within'] Who 's there ? what, ho ! 

Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, 10 
And 't is not done. The attempt and not the deed 
Confounds us. Hark ! I laid their daggers ready ; 
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept, I had done 't. 

Enter Macbeth. 

My husband ! 
Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a 

noise ? 
Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets 

cry. 
Did not you speak ? 

Macb. When ? 

Lady M. Now. 

Macb. As I descended? 

Lady M. Ay. 



24 MACBETH. 

Macb. Hark ! 
Who lies i' the second chamber ? 

Lady M. Donalbain. 20 

Macb. This is a sorry sight. 

[Looking on his hands. 

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 

Macb. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried 
1 Murder ! ' 
That they did wake each other : I stood and heard them : 
But they did say their prayers, and addressed them 
Again to sleep. 

Lady M. There are two lodged together. 

Macb. One cried < God bless us ! ' and i Amen ' the 
other ; 
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 
Listening their fear, I could not say ' Amen/ 
When they did say ' God bless us ! ' 

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. 30 

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce ' Amen ' ? 
I had most need of blessing, and < Amen ? 
Stuck in my throat. 

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 
After these ways ; so, it will make us mad. 

Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry i Sleep no 
more ! 
Macbeth does murder sleep/ the innocent sleep, 
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, 
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 

Lady M. What do you mean ? 40 

Macb. Still it cried ' Sleep no more ! ' to all the house : 



ACT II. SCENE II. 25 

' G-lamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor 
Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' 

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, 
worthy thane, 
You do unbend your noble strength, to think 
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 
They must lie there : go carry them ; and smear 
The sleepy grooms with blood. 

Mad). I '11 go no more : 50 

I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
Look on 't again I dare not. 

Lady M. Infirm of purpose ! 

Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 
Are but as pictures : 't is the eye of childhood 
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 
I '11 gild the faces of the grooms withal ; 
For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within. 

Macb. Whence is that knocking ? 

How is 't with me, when every noise appals me ? 
What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes. 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 

Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red. 

■Re-enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. My hands are of your color ; but I shame 
To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.'] I hear 

a knocking 
At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 



26 MACBETH. 

A little water clears us of this deed : 

How easy is it, then ! Your constancy 

Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.'] Hark ! 

more knocking. 
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, 70 

And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 

Macb. To know my deed, 't were best not know my- 
self. [Knocking within. 
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou 
couldst ! [Exeunt. 
Scene III. The same. 
Knocking within. Enter a Porter. 

Porter. Here 's a knocking indeed ! If a man were 
porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. 
[Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's 
there, i' the name of Beelzebub ? Here 's a farmer, that 
hanged himself on the expectation of plenty : come in 
time ; have napkins enow about you ; here you '11 sweat 
for 't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock ! Who "s 
there, in the other devil's name ? Faith, here 's an equiv- 
ocator, that could swear in both the scales against either 
scale ; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet 
could not equivocate to heaven : 0, come in, equivocator. 
[Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's 
there ? Faith, here 's an English tailor come hither, for 
stealing out of a French hose : come in, tailor ; here you 
may roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, 
knock ; never at quiet ! What are you ? But this place 
is too cold for hell. I '11 devil-porter it no further : I 
had thought to have let in some of all professions that 



ACT II. SCENE III. 27 

go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knock- 
ing within.^ Anon, anon ! I pray yon, remember the 
porter. [Ojiens the gate. 

Enter Macduff and Lennox. 

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere yon went to bed, 
That yon do lie so late ? 

Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 
cock. 

Macd. Is thy master stirring ? 

Enter Macbeth. 

Onr knocking has awaked him ; here he comes. 

Leu. Good morrow, noble sir. 

Maeb. Good morrow, both. 

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane ? 

Maeb. Not yet. 50 

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him : 
I have almost slipped the hour. 

Maeb. I '11 bring you to him. 

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you 5 
But yet 't is one. 

Maeb. The labor we delight in physics pain. 

This is the door. 

Macd. I '11 make so bold to call, 

For 'tis my limited service. [Exit. 

Len. Goes the king hence to-day ? 

Maeb. He does : he did appoint so. 

Len. The night has been unruly : where we lay, 
Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 60 
Lamentings heard i' the air ; strange screams of death, 
And prophesying with accents terrible 



28 MACBETH. 

Of dire combustion and confused events 
New hatched to the woeful time : the obscure bird 
Clamored the livelong night : some say, the earth 
Was feverous and did shake. 

Macb. ? T was a rough night. 

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
A fellow to it. 

Re-enter Macduff. 

Macd. horror, horror, horror ! Tongue nor heart 
Cannot conceive nor name thee ! 

¥ acb ' [ What >s the matter ? 70 

Len. ) 

Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
The life o' the building ! 

Macb. What is 't you say ? the life ? 

Len. Mean you his majesty ? 

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 
With a new Gorgon : do not bid me speak ; 
See, and then speak yourselves. 

[Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. 
Awake, awake ! 
Eing the alarum-bell. Murder and treason ! 
Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 80 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 
The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 
To countenance this horror ! Eing the bell. 

\_Bell rings. 



ACT II. SCENE III. 29 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. What \s the business, 
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
The sleepers of the house ? speak, speak ! 

Maed. gentle lady, 

'T is not for you to hear what I can speak ; 
The repetition, in a woman's ear, 90 

Would murder as it fell. 

Enter Banquo. 

Banquo, Banquo, 
Our royal master 's murdered ! 

Lady M. Woe, alas ! 

What, in our house ? 

Ban. Too cruel any where. 

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 
And say it is not so. 

He-enter Macbeth and Lennox with Ross. 

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had lived a blessed time ; for, from this instant, 
There ? s nothing serious in mortality : 
All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 100 

Is left this vault to brag of. 

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Don. What is amiss ? 

Macb. You are, and do not know f t : 

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
Is stopped ; the very source of it is stopped. 

Maed. Your royal father 's murdered. 



30 MACBETH. 

Mai. 0, by whom ? 

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had 
done 't : 
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood ; 
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found 
Upon their pillows : 

They stared, and were distracted ; no man's life no 

Was to be trusted with them. 

Macb. 0, yet I do repent me of my fury, 
That I did kill them. 

Macd. Wherefore did you so ? 

Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and 
furious, 
Loyal and neutral, in a moment ? No man : 
The expedition of my violent love 
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 
His silver skin laced with his golden blood ; 
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature 
For ruin's wasteful entrance : there, the murderers, 120 
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers 
Unmannerly breeched with gore : who could refrain, 
That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
Courage to make 's love known ? 

Lady M. Help me hence, ho ! 

Macd. Look to the lady. 

Mai. [Aside to Do)i.~] Why do we hold our tongues, 
That most may claim this argument for ours ? 

Don. [Aside to Mai.'] What should be spoken here, 
where our fate, 
Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us ? 
Let 's away 5 
Our tears are not yet brewed. 



ACT II. SCENE III. 31 

Mai. [Aside to Don.'] Nor our strong sorrow 130 
Upon the foot of motion. 

Ban. ■ Look to the lady : 

[Lady Macbeth is carried out. 
And when we have our naked frailties hid, 
That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 
And question this most bloody piece of work, 
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 
In the great hand of God I stand ; and thence 
Against the undivulged pretence I fight 
Of treasonous malice. 

Macd. And so do I. 

All. So all. 

Macb. Let 's briefly put on manly readiness, 
And meet i' the hall together. 

All. Well contented. 140 

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Mai. What will you do ? Let 's not consort with 
them : 
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 
Which the false man does easy. I '11 to England. 

Don. To Ireland, I ; our separated fortune 
Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, 
There 's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood, 
The nearer bloody. 

Mai. This murderous shaft that 's shot 

Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 150 

But shift away : there 's warrant in that theft 
Which steals itself, when there 's no mercy left. 

[Exeunt. 



82 MACBETH. 

Scene IV. Outside Macbeth' s castle. 
Enter Ross and an old Man. 

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember we\l : 
Within the volume of which time I have seen 
Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore night 
Hath trifled former knowings. 

Ross. Ah, good father, 

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock, 't is day, 
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it ? 

Old M. 'T is unnatural, 10 

Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday last, 
A falcon, towering in her pride of place, 
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. 

Boss. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange 
and certain — 
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
War with mankind. 

Old M. 'T is said they eat each other. 

Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes 
That looked upon 't. Here comes the good Macduff. 20 

Enter Macduff. 

How goes the world, sir, now ? 

Macd. Why, see you not ? 

Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody 
deed ? 



ACT II. SCENE IV. 33 

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 

Boss. Alas, the day ! 

What good could they pretend ? 

Macd. They were suborned : 

Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, 
Are stolen away and fled ; which puts upon them 
Suspicion of the deed. 

Ross. 'Gainst nature still ! 

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 
Thine own life's means ! Then 't is most like 
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone 
To be invested. 

Ross. Where is Duncan's body ? 

Macd. Carried to Colmekill, 
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
And guardian of their bones. 

Ross. Will you to Scone ? 

Macd. No, cousin, I '11 to Fife. 

Ross. Well, I will thither. 

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there: 
adieu ! 
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! 

Ross. Farewell, father. 

Old M. God's benison go with you ; and with those 40 
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes ! 

\_Exeunt. 



34 MACBETH. 

ACT III. 

Scene I. Forres. The palace. 
Enter Banquo. 
Ban. Thou hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glands, all, 
As the weird women promised, and, I fear, 
Thou playedst most foully for 't : yet it was said 
It should not stand in thy posterity, 
But that myself should be the root and father 
Of many kings. If there come truth from them — 
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine — 
Why, by the verities on thee made good, 
May they not be my oracles as well, 
And set me up in hope ? But hush ! no more. 10 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Mac- 
beth, as queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and 
Attendants. 

Macb. Here J s our chief guest. 

Lady M. If he had been forgotten, 

It had been as a gap in our great feast, 
And all-thing unbecoming. 

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 
And I '11 request your presence. 

Ban. Let your highness 

Command upon me ; to the which my duties 
Are with a most indissoluble tie 
For ever knit. 

Macb. Hide you this afternoon ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord. 20 

Macb. We should have else desired your good advice, 
Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 



ACT III. SCENE I. 35 

In this day's council ; but we ? 11 take to-morrow. 
Is ? t far you ride ? 

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better, 
I must become a borrower of the night 
For a dark hour or twain. 

Much. Fail not our feast. 

Ban. My lord, I will not. 

Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestowed 30 
In England and in Ireland, not confessing 
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
With strange invention : but of that to-morrow, 
When therewithal we shall have cause of state 
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse : adieu, 
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon 's. 

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot • 
And so I do commend you to their backs. 
Farewell. [Exit Banquo. 40 

Let every man be master of his time 
Till seven at night : to make society 
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
Till supper-time alone : while then, God be with you ! 

[Exeunt all but Macbeth, and an attendant. 
Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
Our pleasure ? 

Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. 

Macb. Bring them before us. [Exit Attendant. 

To be thus is nothing j 
But to be safely thus. — Our fears in Banquo 
Stick deep ; and in his royalty of nature 50 

Reigns that which would be feared : 't is much he dares ; 



36 MACBETH. 

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor 

To act in safety. There is none but he 

Whose being I do fear : and, under him, 

My Genius is rebuked ; as, it is said, 

Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters 

When first they put the name of king upon me, 

And bade them speak to him : then prophet-like 

They hailed him father to a line of kings : 60 

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 

Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, 

No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so, 

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind ; 

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered ; 

Put rancors in the vessel of my peace 

Only for them ; and mine eternal jewel 

Given to the common enemy of man, 

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 70 

Bather than so, come fate into the list, 

And champion me to the utterance ! Who 's there ? 

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. 

\_Exit Attendant. 
Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 

First Mur. It was, so nlease your highness. 

Macb. Well then, now 

Have you considered of my speeches ? Know 
That it was he in the times past which held you 
So under fortune, which you thought had been 
Our innocent self : this I made good to you 



ACT III. SCENE I. 37 

In our last conference, passed in probation with you, 80 
How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instru- 
ments, 
Who wrought with them, and all things else that might 
To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
Say ' Thus did Banquo.' 

First Mur. You made it known to us. 

Macb. I did so, and went further, which is now 
Our point of second meeting. Do you find 
Your patience so predominant in your nature 
That you can let this go ? Are you so gospelled 
To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave 90 

And beggared yours for ever ? 

First Mar. We are men, my liege. 

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept 
All by the name of dogs : the valued file 
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
According to the gift which bounteous nature 
Hath in him closed ; whereby he does receive 
Particular addition, from the bill 100 

That writes them all alike : and so of men. 
Now, if you have a station in the file, 
Not T the worst rank of manhood, say 't ; 
And I will put that business in your bosoms, 
Whose execution takes your enemy off, 
Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 
Who wear our health but sickly in his life, 
Which in his death were perfect. 



38 MACBETH. 

Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege, 

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what 110 

I do to spite the world. 

First Mur. And I another 

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, 
That I would set my life on any chance, 
To mend it, or be rid on 't. 

Macb. Both of you 

Know Banquo was your enemy. 

Both Mur. True, my lord. 

Macb. So is he mine ; and in such bloody distance, 
That every minute of his being thrusts 
Against my near'st of life : and though I could 
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, 120 

For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
Who I myself struck down ; and thence it is, 
That I to your assistance do make love, 
Masking the business from the common eye 
For sundry weighty reasons. 

Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord, 

Perform what you command us. 

First Mur. Though our lives — 

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this 
hour at most 
I will advise you where to plant yourselves ; 
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, 130 

The moment on 't ; for 't must be done to-night, 
And something from the palace ; always thought 
That I require a clearness : and with him — 



ACT III. SCENE II. 39 

To leave no rubs nor blotches in the work — 
Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
Whose absence is no less material to me 
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart : 
I '11 come to you anon. 

Both Mm-. We are resolved, my lord. 

Macb. I '11 call upon you straight : abide within. 140 

\_Exeunt Murderers. 
It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, 
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exit. 

Scene II. The palace. 
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court ? 

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure 
For a few words. 

Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit. 

Lady M. Nought 's had, all 's spent, 

Where our desire is got without content : 
'T is safer to be that which we destroy 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. 

Enter Macbeth. 

How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 

Of sorriest fancies your companions making, 

Using those thoughts which should indeed have died 10 

With them they think on ? Things without all remedy 

Should be without regard : what 's done is done. 

Macb. We have scotched the snake, not killed it : 
She '11 close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 



40 MACBETH. 

Eemains in danger of her former tooth. 

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, 

Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep 

In the affliction of these terrible dreams 

That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 20 

Than on the torture of the mind to lie 

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 

Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 

Can touch him further. 

Lady M. Come on ; 

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks ; 
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 

Macb. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 30 

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 
Unsafe the while, that we 

Must lave our honors in these flattering streams, 
And make our faces vizards to our hearts, 
Disguising what they are. 

Lady M. You must leave this. 

Macb. 0, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 

Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne. 

Macb. There 's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; 
Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown 40 

His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons 
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note. 



ACT III. SCENE III. 41 

Lady M. What 's to be done ? 

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day ; 
And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 
Which keeps me pale ! Light thickens ; and the crow 50 
Makes wing to the rooky wood : 
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; 
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. 
Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still : 
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. 
So, prithee, go with me. \_Exeunt. 

Scene III. A park near the palace. 
Enter three Murderers. 

Fi7*st Mur. But who did bid thee join with us ? 

Third Mur. Macbeth. 

Sec. Mar. He needs not our mistrust, since he de- 
livers 
Our offices and what we have to do 
To the direction just. 

First Mur. Then stand with us. 

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 
ISTow spurs the lated traveller apace 
To gain the timely inn ; and near approaches 
The subject of our watch. 

Third Mur. Hark ! I hear horses. 

Ban. [ Withiri] Give us a light there, ho ! 

Sec. Mur. Then 't is he : the rest 

That are within the note of expectation 10 

Already are i' the court. 



42 MACBETH. 

First Mur. His horses go about. 

Third Mur. Almost a mile : but lie does usually, 
So all men do, from hence to the palace gate 
Make it their walk. 

Sec. Mur. A light, a light ! 

Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch. 

Third Mur. 'T is he. 

First Mur. Stand to *t. 

Ban. It will rain to-night. 

First Mur. Let it come down. 

[They set upon Banquo. 

Ban. 0, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly ! 
Thou mayst revenge. slave ! 

[Dies. Fleance escapes. 

Third Mur. Who did strike out the light ? 

First Mur. Was 't not the way ? 

Third Mur. There 's but one down ; the son is fled. 

Sec. Mur. We have lost 20 

Best half of our affair. 

First Mur. Well, let 's away, and say how much is 
done. \_Exeunt. 

Scene IV. The same. Hall in the palace. 

A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, 
B-oss, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. 

Macb. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at 
first 
And last the hearty welcome. 

Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society, 
And play the humble host. 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 43 

Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 
We will require her welcome. 

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends ; 
For my heart speaks they are welcome. 

First Murderer appears at the door. 

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' 
thanks. 
Both sides are even : here I '11 sit i' the midst : 10 

Be large in mirth ; anon we '11 drink a measure 
The table round. [Approaching the door.~] There 's 
blood upon thy face. 

Mur. 'T is Banquo's then. 

Macb. 'T is better thee without than he within. 
Is he dispatched ? 

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for him. 

Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats : yet he 's 
good 
That did the like for Fleance : if thou didst it, 
Thou art the nonpareil. 

Mur. Most royal sir, 

Fleance is 'scaped. 20 

Macb. Then comes my fit again : I had else been 
perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
As broad and general as the casing air : 
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in 
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo 's safe ? 

Mur. Ay, my good lord : safe in a ditch he bides, 
With twenty trenched gashes on his head ; 
The least a death to nature. 

Macb. Thanks for that : 



44 MACBETH. 

There the grown serpent lies ; the worm that 's fled 
Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 

No teeth for the present. Get thee gone : to-morrow 
We '11 hear, ourselves, again. \Exit Murderer. 

Lady M. My royal lord, 

You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold 
That is not often vouched, while 't is a-making, 
'T is given with welcome : to feed were best at home ; 
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony : 
Meeting were bare without it. 

Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! 

Now, good digestion wait on appetite, 
And health on both ! 

Len. May 't please your highness sit. 

\_The Ghost of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth 7 s 
place. 

Macb. Here had we now our country's honor 
roofed, 40 

Were the graced person of our Banquo present ; 
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
Than pity for mischance ! 

Boss. His absence, sir, 

Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your highness 
To grace us with your royal company. 

Macb. The table 's full. 

Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 

Macb. Where ? 

Len. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves 
your highness ? 

Macb. Which of you have done this ? 

Lords. What, my good lord ? 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 45 

Mad). Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 50 
Thy gory locks at me. 

Boss. Gentlemen, rise ; his highness is not well. 
Lady M. Sit, worthy friends : my lord is often thus, 
And hath been from his youth : pray you, keep seat ; 
The fit is momentary ; upon a thought 
He will again be well : if much you note him, 
You shall offend him and extend his passion : 
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man ? 

Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 
Which might appal the devil. 

Lad} i M. proper stuff ! 60 

This is the very painting of your fear : 
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 
Led you to Duncan. 0, these flaws and starts, 
Impostors to true fear, would well become 
A woman's story at a winter's fire, 
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
Why do you make such faces ? When all 's done, 
You look but on a stool. 

Macb. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how 
say you ? 
Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 70 
If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, oar monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost vanishes. 

Lady M. What, quite unmanned in folly ? 
Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. 
Lady M. Fie, for shame ! 

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden 
time, 
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal ; 



46 MACBETH. 

Ay, and since too, murders have been performed 
Too terrible for the ear : the times have been, 
That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 
And there an end ; but now they rise again, 80 

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, 
And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
Than such a murder is. 

Lady M. My worthy lord, 

Your noble friends do lack you. 

Macb. I do forget. 

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends ; 
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all ; 
Then I ? 11 sit down. Give me some wine ; fill full. 
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, 
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; 90 

Would he were here ! to all, and him, we thirst, 
And all to all. 

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 

Re-enter Ghost. 

Macb. Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth hide 
thee! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with ! 

Lady M. Think of this, good peers, 

But as a thing of custom : 't is no other ; 
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 

Macb. What man dare, I dare : 
Approach thou like the rugged Eussian bear, 100 

The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger j 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 47 

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 

Shall never tremble : or be alive again, 

And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow ! 

Unreal mockery, hence ! [Ghost vanishes. 

Why, so : being gone, 
I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. 

Lady M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the 
good meeting, 
With most admired disorder. 

Macb. Can such things be, 110 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
Without our special wonder ? You make me strange 
Even to the disposition that I owe, 
When now I think you can behold such sights, 
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 
When mine is blanched with fear. 

Boss. What sights, my lord ? 

Lady M. I pray you, speak not ; he grows worse and 
worse ; 
Question enrages him. At once, good night : 
Stand not upon the order of your going, 
But go at once. 

Len. Good night ; and better health 120 

Attend his majesty ! 

Lady M. A kind good night to all ! 

[Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady M. 

Maeb. It will have blood ; they say, blood will have 
blood : 
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak j 
Augurs and understood relations have 



48 MACBETH. 

By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth 
The secret' st man of blood. What is the night ? 

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is 
which. 

Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person 
At our great bidding ? 

Lady M. Did you send to him, sir ? 

Macb. I hear it by the way ; but I will send : 130 

There 's not a one of them but in his house 
I keep a servant feed. I will to-morrow, 
And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 
More shall they speak ; for now I am bent to know, 
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, 
All causes shall give way : I am in blood 
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, 
Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 
Strange things 1 have in head, that will to hand ; 
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned. 140 

Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 

Macb. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self- 
abuse 
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use : 
We are yet but young in deed. \_Exennt. 

Scene V. A Heath. 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate. 
First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look 

angerly. 
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, 
Saucy and overbold ? How did you dare 
To trade and traffic with Macbeth 
In riddles and affairs of death ; 



ACT III. SCENE V. 49 

And I, the mistress of your charms, 

The close contriver of all harms, 

Was never called to bear my part, 

Or show the glory of our art ? 

And, which is worse, all you have done 10 

Hath been but for a wayward son, 

Spiteful and •wrathful^ who, as others^do, 

Loves for his own ends, not for you. 

But make amends now : get you gone, 

And at the pit of Acheron 

Meet me i' the morning : thither he 

Will come to know his destiny : 

Your vessels and your spells provide, 

Your charms and every thing beside. 

I am for the air : this night I '11 spend 20 

Unto a dismal and a fatal end : 

Great business must be wrought ere noon : 

Upon the corner of the moon 

There hangs a vaporous drop profound ; 

I '11 catch it ere it comes to ground : 

And that distilled by magic sleights 

Shall raise such artificial sprites 

As by the strength of their illusion 

Shall draw him on to his confusion : 

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30 

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear : 

And you all know, security 

Is mortals' chiefest enemy. • 

[Musie and a song within : ' Come away, come away/ 
&c. 
Hark ! I am called ; my little spirit, see, 
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. \Exit. 



50 MACBETH. 

First Witch. Come, let 's make haste ; she '11 soon be 
back again. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Forres. The palace. 
Enter Lennox and another Lord. 

Len. My forme^- speeches have but hit your thoughts, 
Which can interpret further : only, I say, 
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan 
Was pitied of Macbeth : marry, he was dead : 
And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late ; 
Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance killed, 
For Fleance fled : men must not walk too late. 
Who cannot want the thought how monstrous 
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
To kill their gracious father ? damned fact ! 10 

How it did grieve Macbeth ! did he not straight 
In pious rage the two delinquents tear, 
That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep ? 
Was not that nobly done ? Ay, and wisely too ; 
For 't would have angered any heart alive 
To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say, 
He has borne all things well : and I do think 
That had he Duncan's sons under his key — 
As, an 't please heaven, he shall not — they should find 
What 't were to kill a father ; so should Fleance. 20 

But, peace ! for from broad words and 'cause he failed 
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear 
Macduff lives in disgrace : sir, can you tell 
Where he bestows himself ? 

Lord. The son of Duncan, 

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 



ACT III. SCENE VI. 51 

Lives in the English court, and is received 

Of the most pious Edward with such grace 

That the malevolence of fortune nothing 

Takes from his high respect : thither Macduff 

Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid 30 

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward : 

That, by the help of these — with Him above 

To ratify the work ■ — we may again 

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 

Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, 

Do faithful homage and receive free honors : 

All which we pine for now : and this report 

Hath so exasperate the king that he 

Prepares for some attempt of war. 

Leu. Sent he to Macduff ? 

Lord. He did : and with an absolute ' Sir, not 1/ 40 
The cloudy messenger turns me his back, 
And hums, as who should say * You '11 rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer.' 

Len. And that well might 

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 
Ely to the court of England and unfold 
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
May soon return to this our suffering country 
Under a hand accursed ! 

Lord. I '11 send my prayers with him. 

[Exeunt. 



52 MACBETH. 

ACT IV. 

Scene I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed. 

Sec. Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. 

Third Witch. Harpier cries 'T is time, 't is time. 

First Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 
In the poisoned entrails throw. 
Toad, that under cold stone 
Days and nights has thirty one 
Sweltered venom sleeping got, 
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 10 

Eire burn, and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 
In the cauldron boil and bake 5 
Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, 
Eor a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 20 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
Of the ravined salt-sea shark, 
Root of hemlock digged i' the dark, 
Liver of blaspheming Jew, 
Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
Slivered in the moon's eclipse, 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 53 

Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 

Finger of birth-strangled babe 30 

Ditch-delivered by a drab, 

Make the gruel thick and slab : 

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 

For the ingredients of our cauldron. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 
Eire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
Then the charm is firm and good. 

Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. 

Hee. Oh, well done ! I commend your pains ; 
And every one shall share i' the gains : 40 

And now about the cauldron sing, 
Live elves and fairies in a ring, 
Enchanting all that you put in. 

[Music and a song : ' Black spirits,' &c. 
\_Hecate retires. 
Sec. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 
Something wicked this way comes. 
Open, locks, 
Whoever knocks. 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight 
hags ! 
What is 't you do ? 

All. A deed without a name. 

Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 50 
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
Though you untie the winds and let them fight 



54 MACBETH. 

Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 

Confound and swallow navigation up ; 

Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 

Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 

Though palaces and pyramids do slope 

Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 

Of nature's germens tumble all together, 

Even till destruction sicken ; answer me 60 

To what I ask you. 

First Witch. Speak. 

Sec. Witch. Demand. 

Third Witch. We '11 answer. 

First Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from our 
mouths, 
Or from our masters ? 

Macb. Call 'em ; let me see 'em. 

First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 

Her nine farrow ; grease that 's sweaten 

From the murderer's gibbet throw 

Into the flame. 

All. Come, high or low ; 

Thyself and office deftly show ! 

Thunder. First Apparition : an armed Head. 
Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 
First Witch. • He knows thy thought : 

Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 

First App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware 
Macduff ; 
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. 

[^Descends. 

Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks ; 

Thou hast harped my fear aright : but one word more, — 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 55 

First Witch. He will not be commanded : here 's 
another, 
More potent than the first. 

Thunder. Second Apparition : a bloody Child. 

Sec. App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 

Macb. Had I three ears, I 'Id hear thee. 

Sec. App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to 
scorn 
The power of man, for none of woman born 80 

Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends. 

Macb. Then live, Macduff : what need I fear of thee ? 
But yet I '11 make assurance double sure, 
And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 
And sleep in spite of thunder. 

Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a 
tree in his hand. 

What is this 
That rises like the issue of a king, 
And wears upon his baby-brow the round 
And top of sovereignty ? 

All. Listen, but speak not to 't. 

Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no 
care 90 

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until 
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
Shall come against him. [Descends. 

Macb. That will never be : 

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 
Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! 



56 MACBETH. 

Rebellion's head rise never till the wood 
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 

i Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
Can tell so much :i shall Banquo's issue ever 
Reign in this kingdom ? 

All. Seek to know no more. 

Macb. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know. 
Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 

[Hautboys. 

First Witch. Show ! 

Sec. Witch. Show ! 

Third Witch. Show! 

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart ; 110 

Come like shadows, so depart ! 

A shoiv of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his 
hand ; Banquo's Ghost folloiving. 

Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down ! 
Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, 
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. 
A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 
Why do you show me this ? A fourth ! Start, eyes ! 
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? 
Another yet ! A seventh ! I '11 see no more : 
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
Which shows me many more ; and some I see 120 

That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry : 
Horrible sight ? Now, I see, 't is true ; 
For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 57 

And points at them for his. [Apparitions vanish.'] What, 

is this so ? 
First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so : but why 
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
And show the best of our delights : 
I '11 charm the air to give a sound, 

While you perform your antic round ; 130 

That this great king may kindly say, 
Our duties did his welcome pay. 

[Music. The Witches dance, and then vanish, with 
Hecate. 
Macb. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this pernicious 

hour 
Stand aye accursed in the calendar ! 
Come in, without there ! 

Enter Lennox. 

Len. What 's your grace's will ? 

Macb. Saw you the weird sisters ? 

Len. No, my lord. 

Macb. Came they not by you ? 

Len. No, indeed, my lord. 

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride ; 
And damned all those that trust them ! I did hear 
The galloping of horse : who was 't came by ? 140 

Len. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word 
Macduff is fled to England. 

Macb. Fled to England ! 

Len. Ay, my good lord. 

Macb. Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits : 
The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 



58 MACBETH. 

• 
Unless the deed go with it : from this moment 
The very firstlings of my heart shall be 
The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done : 
The castle of Macduff I will surprise ; 150 

Seize upon Fife ; give to the edge o' the sword 
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool ; 
This deed I '11 do before this purpose cool. 
But no more sights ! — Where are these gentlemen ? 
Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. Fife. Macduff's castle. 
Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 

L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the 
land? 

Ross. You must have patience, madam. 

L. Macd. He had none : 

His flight was madness : when our actions do not, 
Our fears do make us traitors. 

Boss. You know not 

Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 

L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his 
babes, 
His mansion and his titles in a place 
From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not ; 
He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 
The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 10 

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 
As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
So runs against all reason. 



ACT IV. SCENE II. 59 

Ross. My dearest coz, 

I pray you, school yourself : but for your husband, 
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further ; 
But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumor 
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 

But float upon a wild and violent sea 
Each way and move. I take my leave of you : 
Shall not be long but I '11 be here again : 
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 
Blessing upon you ! 

L. Macd. Fathered he is, and yet he 's fatherless. 

Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
I take my leave at once. {Exit. 

L. Macd. Sirrah, your father 's dead : 30 

And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 

Son. As birds do, mother. 

L. Macd. What, with worms and flies ? 

Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 

L. Macd. Poor bird ! thou 'ldst never f ear the net nor 
lime, 
The pitfall nor the gin. 

Son. Why should I, mother ? Poor birds they are 
not set for. 
My father is not dead, for all your saying. 

L. Macd. Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for a 
father ? 

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 

L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. 40 



60 MACBETH. 

Son. Then you '11 buy 'em to sell again. 

L. Macd. Thou speak' st with all thy wit ; and yet, i f 
faith, 
With wit enough for thee. 

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother ? 

L. Macd. Ay, that he was. 

Son. What is a traitor ? 

L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. 

Son. And be all traitors that do so ? 

L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and 
must be hanged. 50 

Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie ? 

L. Macd. Every one. 

Son. Who must hang them ? 

L. Macd. Why, the honest men. 

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there 
are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and 
hang up them. 

L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! But 
how wilt thou do for a father ? 60 

Son. If he were dead, you 'Id weep for him : if you 
would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have 
a new father. 

L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, 
Though in your state of honor I am perfect. 
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 
If you will take a homely man's advice, 
Be not found here ; hence, with your little ones. 
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage ; 70 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 61 

To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! 

I dare abide no longer. [Exit. 

L. Macd. Whither should I fly ? 

I have done no harm. But I remember now 
I am in this earthly world ; where to do harm 
Is often laudable, to do good sometime 
Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, 
Do I put up that womanly defence, 
To say I have done no harm ? 

Enter Murderers. 

What are these faces ? 
First Mur. Where is your husband ? 80 

L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified 
Where such as thou may'st find him. 

First Mur. He 's a traitor. 

Son. Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain ! 
First Mur. What, you egg I 

[Stabbing him. 
Young fry of treachery ! 

Son. He has killed me, mother : 

Run away, I pray you ! [Dies. 

[Exit Lady Macduff, crying < Murder!' Exeunt 
Murderers, following her. 

Scene III. England. Before the King's palace. 
Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 
Mai. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 
Weep our sad bosoms empty. 

Macd. Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men 
Bestride our down-fallen birthdom : each new morn 



62 MACBETH. 

New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out 
Like syllable of dolor. 

Mai. What I believe I '11 wail, 

What know believe, and what I can redress, 
As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 10 

What yon have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters onr tongues, 
Was once thought honest : you have loved him well : 
He hath not touched you yet. I am young : but some- 
thing 
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom 
To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb 
To appease an angry god. 

Macd. I am not treacherous. 

Mai. But Macbeth is. 

A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; 20 
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose : 
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, 
Yet grace must still look so. 

Macd. I have lost my hopes. 

Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my 
doubts. 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child, 
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
Without leave-taking ? I pray you, 
Let not my jealousies be your dishonors, 
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, 30 

Whatever I shall think. 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 63 

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 

Great tyranny ! lay thou thy basis sure, 
For goodness dare not check thee : wear thou thy wrongs : 
The title is affeered ! Fare thee well, lord : 
I would not be the villain that thou think' st 
For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, 
And the rich East to boot. 

Mai. Be not offended : 

I speak not as in absolute fear of you. 
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
It weeps, it bleeds ; and each new day a gash 40 

Is added to her wounds : I think withal 
There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 
And here from gracious England have I offer 
Of goodly thousands : but, for all this, 
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, 

Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 

Shall have more vices than it had before, 

More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, 

By him that shall succeed. 

Macd. What should he be ? 

Mai. It is myself I mean : in whom I know 50 

All the particulars of vice so grafted 

That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth 

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 

Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 

With my confineless harms. 

Macd. Not in the legions 

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned 

In evils to top Macbeth. 

Mai. I grant him bloody, 

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, 



64 MACBETH. 

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 

That lias a name : but there 's no bottom, none, 60 

In my voluptuousness : and my desire 

All continent impediments would o'erbear 

That did oppose my will : better Macbeth 

Than such an one to reign. 

Macd. Boundless intemperance 

In nature is a tyranny ; it hath been 
The untimely emptying of the happy throne 
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
To take upon you what is yours : you may 70 

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 

Mai. With this there grows 

In my most ill-composed affection such 
A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 
Desire his jewels and this other's house : 80 

And my more-having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more ; that I should forge 
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
Destroying them for wealth. 

Maccl. This avarice 

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
Scotland hath f oisons to fill up your will, 
Of your mere own : all these are portable, 
With other graces weighed. 90 

Mai. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, 
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 65 

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 

I have no relish of them, but abound 

In the division of each several crime, 

Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 

Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 

Uproar the universal peace, confound 

All unity on earth. 

Macd. Scotland, Scotland ! 100 

Mai. If such a one be fit to govern, speak : 

I am as I have spoken. 

Macd. Fit to govern ! 

No, not to live. nation miserable, 
With an untitled tyrant bloody sceptered, 
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, 
Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
By his own interdiction stands accursed, 
And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
Was a most sainted king : the queen that bore thee, 
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, 
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well ! 
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
Have banished me from Scotland. my breast, 

Thy hope ends here ! 

MaL Macduff, this noble passion, 

Child of integrity, hath from thy soul 

Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 

To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth 

By many of these trains hath sought to win me 

Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me 

From over-credulous haste : but God above 120 

Deal between thee and me ! for even now 

I put myself to thy direction, and 



110 



66 MACBETH. 

Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure 

The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 

For strangers to my nature. I am yet 

Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 

Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, 

At no time broke my faith, would not betray 

The devil to his fellow and delight 

No less in truth than life : my first false speaking 130 

Was this upon myself : what I am truly, 

Is thine and my poor country's to command : 

Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 

Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, 

Already at a point, was setting forth. 

Now we '11 together ; and the chance of goodness 

Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 

Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 
'T is hard to reconcile. 

Enter a Doctor. 

Mai. Well ; more anon. — Comes the king forth, I 
pray you ? 140 

Doct. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but at his touch — 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand — 
They presently amend. 

Mai. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 

Macd. What 's the disease he means ? 

Mai. 'T is called the evil : 

A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 67 

Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, 150 

All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 

The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 

Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 

Put on with holy prayers : and 't is spoken, 

To the succeeding royalty he leaves 

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 

He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 

And sundry blessings hang about his throne, 

That speak him full of grace. 

Enter Ross. 

Macd. See, who comes here ? 

Mai. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. 160 

Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 

Mai. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 
The means that makes us strangers ! 

Boss. Sir, amen. 

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? 

Boss. Alas, poor country ! 

Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot 
Be called our mother, but our grave ; where nothing, 
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
Where signs and groans and shrieks that rend the air 
Are made, not marked ; where violent sorrow seems 
A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell 170 

Is there scarce asked for who ; and good men's lives 
Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
Dying or ere they sicken. 

Macd. 0, relation 

Too nice, and yet too true ! 

Mai. What 's the newest grief ? 



68 MACBETH. 

Boss. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker ; 
Each minute teems a new one. 

Macd. How does my wife ? 

Ross. Why, well. 

Macd. And all my children ? 

Ross. Well too. 

Macd. The tyrant has not battered at their peace ? 

Ross. No ; they were well at peace when I did leave 
'em. 

Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes 't ? 180 

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor 
Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
Which was to my belief witnessed the rather, 
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 
Now is the time of help ; your eye in Scotland 
Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
To doff their dire distresses. 

Mai. Be 't their comfort 

We are coming thither : gracious England hath 
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men ; 190 

An older and a better soldier none 
That Christendom gives out. 

Ross. Would I could answer 

This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
That would be howled out in the desert air, 
Where hearing should not latch them. 

Macd. What concern they ? 

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 
Due to some single breast ? 

Ross. No mind that 's honest 

But in it shares some woe ; though the main part 
Pertains to vou alone. 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 69 

Macd. If it be mine, 

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 

Boss. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
That ever yet they heard. 

Macd. Hum ! I guess at it. 

Boss. Your castle is surprised ; your wife and babes 
Savagely slaughtered : to relate the manner, 
Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer, 
To add the death of you. 

Mai. Merciful heaven ! 

What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 210 

Macd. My children too ? 

Boss. Wife, children, servants, all 

That could be found. 

Macd. And I must be from thence ! 

My wife killed too ? 

Boss. I have said. 

Mai. Be comforted : 

Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
To cure this deadly grief. 

Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones ? 
Did you say all ? hell-kite ! All ? 
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
At one fell swoop ? 

Mai. Dispute it like a man. 

Macd. I shall do so ; 220 

But I must also feel it as a man. 
I cannot but remember such things were, 
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, 



70 MACBETH. 

And would not take their part ? Sinful Macduff, 
They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am, 
Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now ! 

Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 

Macd. 0, 1 could play the woman with mine eyes 230 
And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself ; 
Within my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too ! 

Mai. This tune goes manly. 

Come, go we to the king ; our power is ready ; 
Our lack is nothing but our leave : Macbeth 
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may : 
The night is long that never finds the day. 240 

\_Exeu7it. 

ACT V. 

Scene I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle. 

Enter a Doctor of Physic and a 
Waiting-Gentlewoman. 

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can 
perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last 
walked ? 

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 
seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon 
her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 
upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to 
bed ; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 9 



ACT V. SCENE I. 71 

Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 
once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching ! 
In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other 
actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard 
her say ? 

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 

Doct. You may to me : and 't is most meet you should. 

Gent. Neither to you nor any one; having no wit- 
ness to confirm my speech. 21 

Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. 

Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise ; and, 
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 

Doct. How came she by that light ? 

Gent. Why, it stood by her : she has light by her 
continually ; 't is her command. 

Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 

Doct . What is it she does now ? Look, how she rubs 
her hands. 31 

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem 
thus washing her hands : I have known her continue in 
this a quarter of an hour. 

Lady M. Yet here 's a spot. 

Doct. Hark ! she speaks : I. will set down what comes 
from her, to satisfy my remembrance the moie strongly. 

Lady M. Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One : two : 
why, then, 't is time to do 't. — Hell is murky ! — Fie, my 
lord, fie ! a soldier, and af eard ? What need we fear who 
knows it, when none can call our power to account ? — 
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so 
much blood in him. 



72 MACBETH. 

Doct. Do you mark that ? 

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife : where is 
she now ? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? — No 
more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you mar all with 
this starting. 50 

Doct. Go to, go to ; you have known what you should 
not. 

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure 
of that : heaven knows what she has known. 

Lady M. Here 's the smell of the blood still : all the 
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 
Oh, oh, oh ! 

Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely 
charged. 60 

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for 
the dignity of the whole body. 
Doct. Well, well, well, — 
Gent. Pray God it be, sir. 

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have 
known those which have walked in their sleep who have 
died holily in their beds. 

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown ; 
look not so pale. — I tell you yet again, Banquo 's buried ; 
he cannot come out on's grave. 71 

Doct. Even so ? 

Lady M. To bed, to bed ! there 's knocking at the 
gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand. 
What 's done cannot be undone. — To bed, to bed, to bed ! 

[Exit. 
Doct. Will she go now to bed ? 
Gent. Directly. 
Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds 



ACT V. SCENE II. 73 

Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 80 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 
More needs she the divine than the physician. 
God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
Eemove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : 
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. 
I think, but dare not speak. 

Gent. Good night, good doctor. 

[Exeunt. 
Scene II. The country near Diuisinane. 
Drum and colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, 

Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers. 
Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff : 
Eevenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
Excite the mortified man. 

Ang. Near Birnam wood 

Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. 
Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? 
Len. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
Of all the gentry : there is Siward's son, 
And many unrough youths that even now 10 

Protest their first of manhood. 

Ment - What does the tyrant ? 

Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : 
Some say he 's mad ; others that lesser hate him 
Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
He cannot buckle his distempered cause 
Within the belt of rule. 



74 MACBETH. 

Ang. Now does he feel 

His secret murders sticking on his hands ; 
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; 
Those he commands move only in command, 
Nothing in love : now does he feel his title 20 

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 
Upon a dwarfish thief. 

Ment. Who then shall blame 

His pestered senses to recoil and start, 
When all that is within him does condemn 
Itself for being there ? 

Caith. Well, march we on, 

To give obedience where 't is truly owed : 
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, 
And with him pour we in our country's purge 
Each drop of us. 

Len. Or so much as it needs, 

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 
Make we our march towards Birnam. 

\_Exeu7it, marching. 

Scene III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle. 
Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 
Macb. Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, 
I cannot taint with fear. What 's the boy Malcolm ? 
Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 
1 Fear not, Macbeth ; no man that 's born of woman 
Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly, false 

thanes, 
And mingle with the English epicures : 



ACT V. SCENE III. 75 

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 10 

Enter a Servant. 

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon ! 
Where got'st thou that goose look ? 

Serv. There is ten thousand — 

Macb. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Macb. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch ? 
Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face ? 

Serv. The English force, so please you. 

Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant. 

Seyton ! — I am sick at heart, 
When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 20 

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. 
I have lived long enough : my way of life 
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
And that which should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath, 
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 
Seyton ! 

Enter Seyton. 

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ? 
Macb. What news more ? 30 

Sey. All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported. 
Macb. I '11 fight till from my bones my flesh be 
hacked. 
Give me my armor. 



76 MACBETH. 

Sey. 'T is not needed yet. 

Macb. I '11 put it on. 

Send out moe horses ; skirr the country round ; 
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. 
How does your patient, doctor ? 

Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
That keep her from her rest. 

Macb. Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 40 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain 
And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart ? 

Doct. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs ; I '11 none of it. 
Come, put mine armor on ; give me my staff. 
Sey ton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. 
Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 
The water of my land, find her disease, 
And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
That should applaud again. — Pull 't off, I say. — 
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, 
Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of 
them? 

Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
Makes us hear something. 

Macb. Bring it after me. 

I will not be afraid of death and bane, 
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 60 



ACT V. SCENE IV. 77 

Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and 
clear, 
Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. Country near Birnam wood. 
Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and 

his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 

Lennox, Eoss, and Soldiers, marching. 

Mai. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 
That chambers will be safe. 

Ment. We doubt it nothing. 

Siw. What wood is this before us ? 

Ment. The wood of Birnam. 

Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough 
And bear ? t before him : thereby shall we shadow 
The numbers of our host and make discovery 
Err in report of us. 

Soldiers. It shall be done. 

Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
Our setting down before 't. 

Mai. 'T is his main hope : 10 

For where there is advantage to be given, 
Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
And none serve with him but constrained things 
Whose hearts are absent too. 

Macd. Let our just censures 

Attend the true event, and put we on 
Industrious soldiership. 

Siw. The time approaches 

That will with due decision make us know 
What we shall say we have and what we owe. 



78 MACBETH. 

Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 

But certain issue strokes must arbitrate : 20 

Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. 

Scene Y. Dunsinane. Within the castle. 

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and 

colors. 

Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 
The cry is still ' They come : ' our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn : here let them lie 
Till famine and the ague eat them up : 
Were they not forced with those that should be ours, 
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, 
And beat them backward home. 

[A cry of women within. 
What is that noise ? 

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit. 

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
The time has been, my senses would have cooled 
To 'hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair 11 

Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
As life were in 't : I have supped full with horrors ; 
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
Cannot once start me. 

Re-enter Seyton. 
Wherefore was that cry ? 

Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. 

Macb. She should have died hereafter ; 
There should have been a time for such a word. 
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day , 20 



ACT V. SCENE V. 79 

To the last syllable of recorded time, 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 
Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing. 

Enter a Messenger. 
Thou comest to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 

Mess. Gracious my lord, 30 

I should report that which I say I saw, 
But know not how to do it. 

Macb. Well, say, sir. 

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 
I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 
The wood began to move. 

Macb. Liar and slave ! 

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 
Within this three mile you may see it coming ; 
I say, a moving grove. 

Macb. If thou speak' st false, 

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, 
Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 
I care not if thou dost for me as much. 
I pull in resolution, and begin 
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 
That lies like truth : < Fear not, till Birnam wood 
Do come to Dunsinane : ' and now a wood 
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! 
If this which he avouches does appear, 
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 



40 



80 MACBETH. 

I gin to be aweary of the sun, 

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. 50 

Ring the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack ! 

At least we '11 die with harness on our back. \_Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle. 

Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Mac- 
duff, and their Army, with boughs. 
Mai. Now near enough : your leafy screens throw 
down, 
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son, 
Lead our first battle : worthy Macduff and we 
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 
According to our order. 

Shu. Fare you well. 

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all 
breath, 
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 10 

\_Exeunt. 

Scene VII. Another part of the field. 
Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 
Macb. They have tied me to a stake ; I cannot fly, 
But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What 's he 
That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 

Yo. Siw. What is thy name ? 

Macb. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. 



ACT V. SCENE VII. 81 

Yo. Siw. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter 
name 
Than any is in hell. 

Macb. My name 's Macbeth. 

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a 
title 
More hateful to mine ear. 

Macb. No, nor more fearful. 

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my 
sword 10 

I '11 prove the lie thou speak'st. 

\_T hey fight and young Siivavd is slain. 
Macb. Thou wast born of woman. 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
Brandished by man that 's of a woman born. [Exit. 

Alarums. Enter Macduff. 

Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy 
face ! 
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge 
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be ; 20 
By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune S 
And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums. 

Enter Malcolm and old Siward. 
Situ. This way, my lord ; the castle 's gently ren- 
dered : 
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight ; 



82 MACBETH. 

The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; 
The day almost itself professes yours, 
And little is to do. 

Mai. We have met with foes 

That strike beside us. 

Skv. Enter, sir, the castle. 

[Exeunt. Alarums. 

Scene VIII. Another part of the field. 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
On mine own sword ? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
Do better upon them. 

Enter Macduff. 

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! 

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
But get thee back ; my soul is too much charged 
With blood of thine already. 

Macd. I have no words : 

My voice is in my sword : thou bloodier villain 
Than terms can give thee out ! [They fight. 

Macb. Thou losest labor : 

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : 10 

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests ; 
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 
To one of woman born. 

Macd. Despair thy charm ; 

And let the angel whom thou still hast served 
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 
Untimely ripped. 



ACT V. SCENE VIII. 83 

Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
For it hath cowed my better part of man ! 
And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
That palter with us in a double sense ; 20 

That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
And break it to our hope. I '11 not fight with thee. 

Macd. Then yield thee, coward, 
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : 
We '11 have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, 
< Here may you see the tyrant.' 

Macb. I will not yield, 

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30 

And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 
Yet I will try the last. Before my body 
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, 
And damned be him that first cries ' Hold, enough ! ' 

[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 
Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Mal- 
colm, old Siward, Boss, the other Thanes, and Soldiers. 

Mai. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 

Siw. Some must go off : and yet, by these I see, 
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 

Mai. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 

Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : 
He only lived but till he was a man ; 40 

The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed 
In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
But like a man he died. 

Siw. Then he is dead ? 



84 MACBETH. 

Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of 
sorrow 
Must not be measured by his worth, for then 
It hath no end. 

Siw. Had he his hurts before ? 

Ross. Ay, on the front. 

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he ! 

Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
And so, his knell is knolled. 

Mai. He 's worth more sorrow, 50 

And that I '11 spend for him. 

Siw. He 's worth no more : 

They say he parted well, and paid his score : 
And so, God be with him ! Here comes newer comfort. 
Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head. 

Macd. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where 
stands 
The usurper's cursed head : the time is free : 
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl, 
That speak my salutation in their minds ; 
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 
Hail, King of Scotland ! 

All. Hail, King of Scotland ! [Flourish. 

Mai. We shall not spend a large expense of time 60 
Before we reckon with your several loves, 
And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, 
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 
In such an honor named. What 's more to do, 
Which would be planted newly with the time, 
As calling home our exiled friends abroad 
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; 



ACT V. SCENE VIII. 85 

Producing forth the cruel ministers 

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 

Who, as 't is thought, by self and violent hands 70 

Took off her life ; this, and what needful else 

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 

We will perform in measure, time and place : 

So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 

Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. 

[Flourish. Exeunt. 



A list of the persons of the drama, with the scenes in which 
they appear. 

Duncan I, 2, 4, 6. 

Malcolm I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; IV, 1; V, 3, 5, 7, 8. 

Donalbain I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3. 

Macbeth I, 3, 4, 5, 7; II, 1, 2, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; IV, 1 ; V, 3, 5, 7, 8. 

Banquo I, 3, 4, 6; II, 1,3; III, 1,3. 

Macduff I, 6; II, 3, 4; IV, 3; V, 4, 6, 7, 8. 

Lennox I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3; III, 1, 4, 6; IV, 1 ; V, 2, 4. 

Ross I, 2,3, 4, 6; II, 3, 4; III, 1,4; IV, 2,3,4, 8. 

Menteith V, 2, 4. 

Angus I, 3, 4, 6; V, 2, 4. 

Caithness V, 2, 4. 

Fleance II, 1 ; III, 3. 

Siward V, 4, 6, 7, 8. 

Young Siward V, 4, 7. 

Seyton V, 3, 5. 

Bot, son to Macduff . . . IV, 2. 
An English Doctor .... IV, 3. 

A Scotch Doctor V, 1, 3. 

A sergeant I, 2. 

A porter II, 3. 

An old man II, 4. 

Lady Macbeth I, 5, 6, 7; II, 2, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; V, 1. 

Lady Macduff IV, 2. 

Gentlewoman V, 1. 

Hecate Ill, 5; IV, 1. 

Three witches 1,1,3; III, 5; IV, 1. 

Apparitions IV, 1. 

Ghost of Banquo Ill, 4. 

Lords ' Ill, 4. 

A Lord Ill, 6. 

Attendant Ill, 1.— V, 3. 

A messenger I, 5. — IV, 2. — V, 5. 

First murderer Ill, 1, 3, 4. 

Second murderer Ill, 1, 3. 

Third murderer Ill, 3. 

Other murderers IV, 2. 

(86) 



NOTES. 

Macbeth belongs to the year 1606, or to the middle of the 
second half of the period of Shakespeare's literary activity. 
The plays to which it stands nearest in point of time are the 
other great tragedies, — Othello, Lear, and Antony and Cleo- 
patra. 

The source of the plot is the history, or chronicle, of 
Holinshed, a writer contemporary with the poet. Inquisitive 
students will be interested to look up the story in Holinshed, 
and to note the freedom with which Shakespeare has dealt with 
the facts given him by his authority, and to what extent he has 
mingled with them matter of his own invention. Those whose 
curiosity leads them to investigate the sources of a number of 
the plays, — as it is easy to do in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's 
Library, — will find the general topic of the poet's indebted- 
ness to other writers a profitable subject of discussion. 

ACT I. 

Scene 1. 

The metre of the scene may be regarded as ^consistently four-beat 
iambic, with the initial light syllable frequently lacking. Then 
verses 2 and 12, with the verse which the two half-lines numbered 
8 and 9 may be considered to form, are regularly octosyllabic, 
while the other verses begin with the accent and have but seven 
syllables each. Meet in 7 may be expanded into two syllables (see 
Ham. i, 3, 8) ; and hover in 12, instead of making a double light 
beginning of the verse, is to be reduced to a single syllable, like 
the words over and ever, which are often printed and spoken with 
elision of the v. 

(87) 



88 NOTES. 

3. On the word hurlyburly compare 1 Hen. IV, v, 1, 78 ; 2 Hen. 
IV, iii, 1, 25; John, iii, 4, 169. With what events of the play do 
you connect hurlyburly and battle ? 

11. Consider whether, in confusing fair and foul, the witches 
are to be interpreted in the same way that Macbeth is, i, 3, 38. 

Scene 2. 

3. Consider the possibility of reading sergeant with three 
syllables : so in line 5 make two syllables of hail, and in line 34 
three syllables of captains (" capitains ") . Is it best to resort to 
these expedients, or shall we let the blank verse halt? 

7. The verse must be allowed to be one of only four accents. 
Note that it has a pause in the middle. 

13. Of kerns and gallow-glasses is supplied. See M. of V. 
ii, 2, 24; v, 1, 297; Mac. iii, 6, 27. 

18. The ending Hon here, and in 25, below, must be resolved 
into two syllables. This peculiarity will need no further mention. 
In line 57 a Avord of two syllables must be contracted into one. 

30. Look up the other instances of the use of skipping, and 
infer its meaning : — L. L. Lost, v, 2, 771 ; Mer. of Ven. ii, 2, 196 ; 
T. Night, i, 5, 214; 1 Hen. IV, iii, 2, 60. 

37. To bring the verse to the measure, reduce cannons to one 
syllable, and overcharged to two : — as canrtns overcharged. Some 
texts remove as they from the verse, and put these words in a short 
line by themselves. 

39. Comment on the adjective in this line and on the verb 
in 18. 

44. See in Cajsar, v, 5, 46, the noun which has developed from 
smack by palatalization of the guttural, just as from break, bake, 
speak, stick, make, wake, have developed breach, etc. So in 
Prospero's Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar, aches 
is a dissyllabic noun with palatal consonant ; while in the Nurse's 
Lord, how my head aches ! what a head have II aches is a mono- 
syllabic verb with the modern pronunciation. 

45. thane, a word used 27 times in this play, but found nowhere 
else in the poet's works. How may this fact be accounted for? 

The line must be considered as lacking the initial light syllable. 



ACT I. SCENE III. 89 

If you know German enough to call the first syllable by its German 
name, Auftald, you will find the word convenient in discussing 
metric peculiarities. 

54. lapped, used here in the same sense as in Rich. Ill, ii, 1, 
115, and in Cymbeline, v, 5, 360, is to be distinguished etymologi- 
eally, as well as in meaning, from lap in line 4 of the next scene, 
and from laps in Temp, ii, 1, 288. 

58. To save the verse from the necessity of being read as an 
alexandrine, consider Avhether the last two syllables of happiness 
cannot be slurred in rapid pronunciation, just as if they formed a 
double light ending. 

Scene 3. 

1-69. With regard to the metric form of the verse spoken by 
the witches, describe its peculiarities as differing from the normal 
verse of the dialogue. What dramatic purpose may Ave ascribe to 
the poet in making the witch-scenes so different to the reader's ear 
from the language of the human speakers? 

20. pent-house lid. See L. L. Lost, iii, 1, 17. 

23. dwindle, peak and pine. A good illustration of the way in 
which a word of infrequent occurrence is often explained by collo- 
cation with words more familiar. In Hamlet, ii, 2, 594, and Mer. 
Wives, iii, 5, 71, peak is used figuratively. See also 1 Hen. IV, 
iii, 3, 3. 

32. The weird sisters. Observe as you read the play the differ- 
ent designations applied by the various speakers to the witches, 
and by the witches to each other. Are these supernatural beings 
called by the same name in the stage directions and in the text? 

The word weird is found nowhere in the poet's works besides 
in this play. It is very apt to be misused by careless writers. 
Consider its origin and true meaning. The word is also to be 
considered, in each instance of its use, with reference to the num- 
ber of its syllables. Scan this line, first as consisting of iambics 
and then as consisting of trochees, and decide whether the iambic 
or the trochaic effect is the better. 

42. Live you? or are you aught That man may question? 
Note that the second clause virtually repeats the first, and that the 



90 NOTES. 

two clauses therefore constitute but one question. In line 53, 
below, on the other hand, the two interrogative clauses are used 
disjunctively ; that is, the second expresses the contrary of the 
first. To read these questions properly you must understand this 
distinction. 

51. Is Macbeth's starting necessarily to be interpreted as indi- 
cating consciousness of guilt? 

53. Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye 
show ? The word fantastical here is sufficiently defined by the 
following adversative question. See this word used again in the 
same sense in line 139 of this scene. 

57. On the meaning of rapt compare Macb. i, 3, 142; i, 5, 6; 
Tempest, i, 2, 77; Timon, i, 1, 19. 

60-61. On the construction compare Ham. iii, 1, 159. 

72. Consider whether lines 72-76 are not inconsistent with 
scene 2, lines 52-57. Recollect that the dramatists of Shake- 
speare's day were accustomed to help each other in the production 
of plays, and that Shakespeare at least had no pride of authorship 
to make him jealous of other men's mingling their work with his. 
From this looseness of structure in the plays, what may we infer 
concerning the character of the public that the poet had in view? 

76. Observe the Shakespearian use of the word owe, and com- 
pare its earlier and its modern range of meaning. 

84. What plant the poet had in mind cannot be definitely ascer- 
tained. But he had just read in his Plutarch the following story 
of what befell Marc Antony's soldiers in Parthia : — " They were 
compelled to live of hearbes and rootes, but they found few of 
them that men do commonly eate of, and were inforced to tast of 
them that were never eaten before : among the which, there was 
one that killed them, and made them out of their wits. For lie 
that had once eaten of it, his memory was gone from him, and 
knew no manner of thing, but only busied himselfe in digging and 
hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been 
a matter of great waight, and to be done with all possible speed. 
All the campe over, men were busily stooping to the ground, dig- 
ging and carying of stones from one place to another," etc., etc. 

92-93. Name in usual forms of speech the emotions which 



ACT L SCENE IV. 91 

contended in Duncan. Are these emotions such as by their nature 
come into conflict with each other, or are they merely contending 
for the supremacy? What is the final effect of this contention on 
Duncan? 

106. addition. So in Wives, ii, 2, 312; Ham. i, 4, 20; ii, 1, 
48. 

112. line, as in 1 Hen. IV, ii, 3, 80; Hen. V, ii, 4, 7. 

120. home : as in Lear, iii, 3, 13 ; Hamlet, iii, 3, 29 ; Cymbe- 
line, iii, 5, 92; and frequently elsewhere. 

130-142. Comment on the general purpose, in plays, of solilo- 
quies and asides. Show how this aside of Macbeth accomplishes 
its purpose with reference to our understanding of motives, and 
how it is made to enhance the impressiveness of the action. With 
Macbeth's soliloquy compare that of Brutus, Jul. Cses. ii, 1, 63- 
69. 

140. Shakes so my single state of man. The word single is 
perhaps used here simply as a term of disparagement or deprecia- 
tion, as in i, 6, 16, this play; Cor. ii, 1, 40; Tempest, i, 2, 432. 
On the expression state of man the best possible commentary will 
be the other instances where the poet uses it, — Jul. Cses. ii, 1, 
67 ; King Henry V, i, 2, 183. 

144. What part of the verb is come ? 

Scene 4. 

8. the leaving it. Show -wherein this phrase is grammatically 
incorrect. 

9. studied in his death. Compare M. of V. ii, 2, 205. 

26. everything safe toward your love and honor : — Every- 
thing sure to express the love and honor which we bear you. So 
paraphrased by Schmidt, who remarks that the passage is purposely 
obscure and strained. 

42, 44, 45. Describe the metric peculiarity which each of these 
verses illustrates. 

48-53. Compare Macbeth's aside with his speeches in the scene. 

54-58. What are we to infer from Duncan's, — True, worthy 
Banquo f Sum up, so far as is now possible, the character of 



92 NOTES. 

Duncan. Describe his feelings towards Macbeth, and Macbeth's 
feelings towards him. 

Scene 5. 

1-13. Why should letters that have to be introduced into the 
dialogue of the plays be uniformly given in prose? Observe the 
other uses to which prose is applied, and see if you can deduce 
from isolated cases any principle that may have governed the poet 
in the matter. 

What may the present letter be considered as suggesting with 
reference to the lapse of time in the preceding scenes? 

16-74. Discuss the traits of character which Lady Macbeth 
ascribes to her husband, and those which she reveals in herself. 

Particularly to be noted is the elevation of the language, which, 
though nowhere obscure, is infinitely removed from the common- 
place of daily life. Consider whether a Shakespearian tragedy is 
meant to be a transcript of conversations such as take place among 
actual persons. For what purpose does the poet use language so 
intensely figurative? What do you find to be the effect on your 
OAvn mind of his manner of expression? 

17, 21. In each of these lines note the extra light syllable in the 
middle of the verse before a pause. 

18. On the milk of human kindness, compare Mac. iv, 3, 93. 
21. Illness cannot be explained from any other instance of 

the word in the plays. But infer its meaning from Mac. ii, 3, 
135 ; John, iv, 1, 7. 

26. Expand the long vowel of hie into two syllables. 

39-40. Compare these lines with 3-9 in the next scene. Lady 
Macbeth's raven, — Banquo's martlet; what do these birds typify? 

40. Pronounce entrance with three syllables, as if it were 
enterance. 

49. The line has a double light ending, and is not an alexan- 
drine. 

Scene 6. 

1-9. Explain the dramatic purpose of the speeches of Duncan 
and Banquo. Compare this entire scene with the previous one as 
setting forth contrasts of character and temper. 



ACT I. SCENE VII. 93 

10-14. Duncan's language is certainly tortuous. The course 
of the thought seems to be as follows. — I have accustomed my- 
self to receive with demonstrations of gratitude even those ex- 
pressions of my subjects' good-will which really I found tedious 
and troublesome. And now that I am troubling you with my 
presence and that of my train, I commend to you my own exam- 
ple, begging you to be thankful for my imposition of care upon 
you, in view of the fact that even this annoyance I sincerely 
intended as a token of love and honor. 

13. God 'ild. See the phrase, with the verb contracted, as 
here, Hamlet, iv, 5, 41, As You Like It, iii, 3, 76; v, 4, 56; and 
with the verb in full ; Ant. and Cle. iv, 2, 33. The appparent 
direct object of the verb in this sense is an original dative. 

19. heaped up to them. For the meaning of to compare iii, 
1, 52; Lucrece, 1589; John, i, 1, 144. 

20. We rest your hermits. Recall Keats's 

" Thou art my heaven, and I thine eremite." 
26. in compt. Compare Merchant, iii, 2, 157. 

Scene 7. 

1-28. Point out the elements of consistency between the revela- 
tions of character made by Macbeth in this soliloquy, and the 
characterizations of him by his wife in scene 5. 

16-20. Compare Oliver's confession of the good qualities in 
Orlando, As You Like It, i, 1, 172-180. 

45. The adage exists in various forms. It is among Hey wood's 
Proverbs, 1566 : ' The cate would eate fishe, and would not wet her 
feete.' 

59. We fail ! In reading these words of Lady Macbeth, it be- 
comes necessary to decide, or, at least, to discuss, the question, 
whether they are meant to express indignant rejection of the idea 
of failure, or simple fatalistic purpose calmly to accept the con- 
sequences, if failure is to befall the enterprise. Which way of 
reading seems the more natural ? Which do you like the better ? 

64. convince : in the same sense as in iv, 3, 142, and in Cym- 
beline, i, 4, 104. 



94 NOTES. 

71. His spongy officers. Recall Portia's description of the 
"young German," Mer. of Ven. i, 2. 

77. The word other is frequently used by the poet in ways now 
obsolete. With this instance compare Ham. i, 1, 108; Oth. iv, 
2, 13. See also Mac. i, 3, 14; Lear, i, 4, 221. 

79. Account for the change in Macbeth's mind that has taken 
place between lines 31 and 79. 



ACT II. 

Scene 1. 

4-9. The possible meanings of Banquo's heavy summons, and 
of his cursed thoughts, are most interesting subjects of discussion. 
Is it to be surmised that Banquo too has been contemplating the 
possibility of hastening by means of crime the consummation of 
the witches' prophecy in behalf of his family? Note his confession 
in line 20. Does anything in his subsequent conduct justify us in 
supposing that at this time he suspects Macbeth's intentions? 
What are the bearings, as regards this point, of his speech, 26-29? 
Try to find that explanation of Banquo's perturbation which shall 
be most consistent with the data furnished by the play. 

5. Take thee that too. — See the same grammatical peculiarity, 
Wint. Tale, iii, 3, 118; Much Ado, iv, 1, 24, and elsewhere. Is 
thee to be regarded as a relic of the ancient dative, or as the result 
of the tendency of the language to find, for close connection with 
the imperative, a pronoun form that should be less emphatic than 
thou? 

For a hint of Banquo's meaning in these words, see Hamlet, v, 
2, 152. 

17. Shut up in measureless content. The meaning of the 
expression cannot be determined by comparison with any similar 
usage in the poet's works or elsewhere. Does shut up have refer- 
ence to Duncan's shutting of his door for the night, or is it used 
figuratively, with some such meaning as, — wrapped himself up ? 
The question can be discussed, but not decided. 



ACT II. SCENES II., III. 95 

31-G4. Note the circumstances that invite comparison between 
Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo has with him his son, Macbeth has 
a servant ; and each attendant carries a torch. Do they also dis- 
miss these companions in similar fashion? Compare Banquo's, 
" Take thee that too," with Macbeth's, " Is this a dagger which 
I see before me?" 

Scene 2. 

15-20. May it not be that these short speeches, being spoken, 
as regards Macbeth himself, in extreme trepidation, are intended to 
be lacking in coherence? 

20-74. Do you discover in the scene any touch of natural kind- 
ness in Lady Macbeth? Comment on Macbeth's series of meta- 
phors, which is apparently going to be endless, and Lady Macbeth's 
interruption of it with her, "What do you mean?" Be on the 
watch for other instances of this exuberance of figurative speech 
in Macbeth. As the previous scene contrasted Macbeth and 
Banquo, so this contrasts what characters, and with what results? 

28. Listening their fear. See Caesar, iv, 1, 41, and compare 
2 Hen. IV, i, 1, 29. 

37. The ravelled sleave of care. See the dictionary on sleave, 
and compare Troi. and Cress, v, 1, 35. 

63. Making the green one red. Be exceedingly careful in 
finding the place for the pause in this passage. 

67-G8. Your constancy Hath left you unattended. Consider 
how the participle renders figurative an expression which without 
it would have conveyed the same thought, but would have been 
literal. 

Scene 3. 

1-4G. The porter-scene, though to an Elizabethan audience it 
was by no means offensive, cannot be presented on the modern 
stage. For what dramatic reasons is some such scene desirable ? 
Consider Shakespeare's liking for strong contrasts, and his recogni- 
tion of the necessity of effectually lowering the pitch of feeling 
in his auditors when emotion has for some time been kept at a high 
tension. 



96 NOTES. 

The poet Schiller could not endure Shakespeare's Porter, but 
created a very different one of his own for his German Macbeth. 
The German porter sings beautiful verses in a lofty religious 
strain. Schiller's porter-scene should, by those who read German, 
by all means be looked up in the original; but Mr. Furness's 
translation in his Variorum edition of the play will suffice for 
those who must have it in English. Compare Schiller's porter 
with Shakespeare's. Is the beauty of Schiller's verses relevant to 
the question of their appropriateness in the play? Does the play, 
as a whole, gain by the change made by Schiller? 

1-2. If a man were porter of hell-gate. Are these words of 
the porter merely wild and wanton, or may they be conceived as 
shadowing the kind of gate at which he is actually porter? 

2. old turning the key. The word old, used by the poet in 
familiar style to amplify the essential meaning of a noun, or to 
convey the idea of great quantity, is perhaps not yet, in colloquial 
language, quite obsolete. See Merry Wives, i, 4, 5 ; Merchant, iv, 
2, 15; Much Ado, v, 2, 98. See also note on modern, iv, 3, 170. 
Note also Prospero's aged cramps, Temp, iv, 261. 

6. napkins, as usually in Shakespeare. So in Hamlet, v, 2, 
299. 

16. at quiet: So in Judges, xviii, 27. 

57. my limited service. See Meas. for Meas. iv, 2, 176; 
John, v, 2, 123. 

63. confused events New hatched to the woful time. Ex- 
plain the bearing of these words of Lennox. 

64. the obscure bird. Compare Jul. Cses. i, 3, 26. 
74-75. See note on iii, 1, 18-20. 

122. their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. It is not 
possible to find a parallel expression that shall satisfactorily ex- 
plain this use of the word breeched. The most obvious interpre- 
tation is, — covered as with breeches. 

131. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. So 
Publius, Jul. Cffis. iii, 1, 86, and Hermia, M. N. Dream, iii, 2, 344. 

132. when we have our naked frailties hid. Understand in 
the same way the words of Macbeth, line 139. 

146-147. The near in blood, The nearer bloody. Both the 



ACT II. SCENE IV. ACT III. SCENE I 97 

adverbs are obviously in the comparative. Ascertain which is the 
primitive, and which the derived, form. See Rich. II, v, 1, 88 ; 
iii, 2, 61; Wint. Tale, iv, 4, 412. 

Scene 4-. 

7. Comment on the metaphor. 

10. Remember to avoid making an alexandrine wherever 
possible. 

10-20. Compare Jul. Caes. i, 3, 1-40. 

14, 17. What metric peculiarity have these lines in common? 

28. ravin up. Compare Meas. for Meas. i, 2, 133. 



ACT III. 

Scene 1. 
18-20. For ever knit. 

Ride you this afternoon ? 
Ay, my good lord. 

A good instance of what Mr. Abbott calls an amphibious section, 
— the first two groups constituting a perfect verse, and the last 
two constituting another, while the middle group does duty in 
both verses. Instances of the amphibious section have already 
occurred in the play, and others will yet occur. 

22. still, in a sense extremely frequent in the English of 
Shakespeare's day. See Wint. Tale, iv, 4, 136 ; Hamlet, ii, 2, 42. 

26. go not my horse the better, etc. Abbott, Shak. Gram., 
suggests that Banquo regards his horse as racing with the night, so 
that the better means, the better of the two. 

Note the subjunctive verb and the inverted order of the clause. 
See a condition similarly expressed in Merchant, iii, 2, 20 and 61 ; 
John, iii, 3, 31. See also Scott's Last Minstrel, I, xxiii. Coleridge, 
in the Piccolomini, ii, 1, has the sentence, — "Break one string, 
A second is in readiness." 

44. while then. While here appears strange in respect to its 
meaning and the part of speech to which it belongs. Compare 
Twelfth Night, iv, 3, 29. 



98 NOTES. 

God be with you. As is usually the case with this phrase, it 
has to be contracted in reading, whether contraction be indicated 
in the type or not. See v, 8, 53. 

55-57. Shakespeare had read in his North's Plutarch, life of 
Marcus Antonius, the following account of the relations between 
Octavius Caesar and Antony : — "In all manor of sports and 
exercises, wherein they passed the time away the one with the 
other : Antonius was ever inferior unto Caesar, and always lost, 
which grieved him much. With Antonius there was a soothsayer 
or astronomer of Egypt, that could cast a figure, and iudge of 
mens nativities, to tell them what should happen to them. He, 
either to please Cleopatra, or also for that he found it so by his 
art; told Antonius plainely, that his fortune (which of it selfe was 
excellent good, and very great) was altogether blemished and 
obscured by Caesar's fortune : and therefore he counselled him 
utterly to leave his company and to get him as far from him as he 
could. For thy Demon, said he, (that is to say, the good angell 
and spirit that keepeth thee) is affraid of his : and being coura- 
gious and high when he is alone, becommeth feareful and timorous 
when he cometh near unto the other. . . . Oftentimes when they 
were disposed to see cockfight, or quails that were taught to fight 
one with another; Caesar's cockes or quailes did ever overcome." 

72. Determine whether utterance here, and in Cymbeline, iii, 
1, 73, is, either in origin or in meaning, the same word as in 
Hamlet, iii, 2, 378, and Caesar, iii, 2, 22G. 

80. passed in probation. The meaning of probation is per- 
fectly illustrated in Othello, iii, 3, 365. 

81. borne in hand : so in Hamlet, ii, 2, 67. 

92-101. What is the difference between a catalogue and a 
valued file? Comment on the voice of valued. See v, 2, 8. 

92-108. Describe the artifices by which Macbeth seeks to instil 
into the murderers a feeling of personal vengeance against his 
victim. 

121. For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
Who I myself struck down. 
Consider whether the verbs wail and struck refer to acts that have 



ACT III. SCENES II, III., IV. 99 

taken place or to acts that arc only imagined. The mood of these 
verbs will depend on the nature of the acts which they describe. 
If their mood is the indicative, do they not make Macbeth reveal 
to the murderers his own assassination of Duncan? Schiller 
translates struck by schluge. For had better be regarded as a 
preposition, with the same meaning as in Cads, iii, 2, 14 : then 
wail is in the first person, with the sense, I should have to wail. 

133. I require a clearness. Does he mean that he shall require 
clear proof of Banquo's death, or that he requires, in any event, to 
be kept clear from suspicion of the crime? 

Scene 2. 

13. We have scotched the snake. See Coriolanus, iv, 5, 198. 

22. In restless ecstasy. Give the Shakespearian definitions of 
the word ecstasy, after noting its meaning in this passage, in 
Hamlet, iii, 4, 138, 139; iii, 1, 1G8 ; Tempest, iii, 3, 108, and 
then in Merchant, iii, 2, 112. 

30. Compare, as to metre, i, 5, 40. 

32. In consequence of obvious defect in the text, the passage 
cannot be construed, though its meaning is clear. 

42. The shard-borne beetle. See Ant. and Cleo. iii, 2, 19; 
Cymbeline, iii, 3, 20. Is the poet's entomology satisfactory ? 

Has Macbeth taken his wife into his confidence in planning the 
murder of Banquo ? Would Lady Macbeth's account of her hus- 
band, i, 5, 16-31, be an adequate description of him at the present 
moment ? Describe his mood as revealed in this scene. 

Scene 3, 

1. Can the presence of a third murderer be accounted for on 
any other supposition than that it was Macbeth himself ? What 
motives would have brought him there ? Do the time-indications 
offer any objections to this view of the case? 

Scene 4. 

2. Avoid giving the line; six accents. As you deal with welcome 
here, so deal with it in line 35 ; and as you deal with majesty 



100 NOTES. 

here, so deal with it again in line 121. Similarly, line 37 is to be 
scanned with five accents, — not with six. 

14. 'Tis better thee without than he within. An instance of 
confusion of cases due to phonetic similarity. See this subject 
interestingly discussed by Henry Sweet, New English Grammar. 

22. Of what aspect of marble could the poet have been thinking, 
that he should use it as the type of wholeness? 

35. to feed were best at home. But see line 59. Compare 
Hamlet, iv, 4, 35; As You Like It, i, 1, 20; Tempest, iii, 3, 49. 
Did feed have the same connotations to Shakespeare that it has to 
us ? 

Give a paraphrase of this speech of Lady Macbeth. 

46. The table 's full. With the ghost of Banquo compare the 
Hamlet ghost of Act I and that of Act III. 

58. Are you a man? Are the words addressed by Lady Mac- 
beth to her husband from this point to line 121 heard by the rest of 
the company? 

64. Impostors to true fear: to in the same sense as in Hen. 
VIII, v, 4, 9; Tempest, i, 2, 480; Hamlet, i, 2, 140; Paradise 
Lost, vi, 668. 

GQ. Authorized by her grandam. See the only other instance 
of Shakespeare's use of authorized, in Passionate Pilgrim, 104. 
From these two passages settle the accent of the word, and note 
whether in the two cases it has the same meaning. 

67. When all's done. Compare M. N. Dream, iii, 1, 16; 
Twelfth Night, ii, 3, 31. 

72. our monuments shall be the maws of kites. See the 
Faerie Queene, II, viii, 16. 

85. Do not muse at me. Examine other constructions of the 
verb muse, and sum up the poet's usage : Tempest, iii, 3, 36 ; Two 
Gent, i, 3, 64; ii, 1, 176. 

105. If trembling I inhabit them. So all the folios agree that 
we shall read the passage. The most nearly literal meaning of it 
would seem to be, — If, when dared to the desert, I through fear 
remain at home. Various changes of reading have been proposed, 
and may be seen in the Cambridge edition and in Furness. 

124. Augurs and understood relations. An obscure passage, 



ACT III. SCENES V., VI. 101 

whose meaning plainly is : — augurs, — or soothsayers, — who 
understand the relations of things, — or the mysteries of nature. 

142. See note on y, 8, 70. 

142-144. The simple language of the last line suffieiently ex- 
plains the somewhat complicated expressions of the two preceding 
ones. 

Scene 5. 

1-36. Compare, metrically, the language of Hecate here and in 
iv, 1, 39-43, with the incantation verses of the witches, iv, 1, 1- 
38. How many syllables has Hecate ? 

32. Define security as used here. 

Discuss the purpose of the scene. How has it affected the inter- 
est of the spectators in the fate of the hero of the tragedy? 



Scene 6. 

1-24. Describe the tone of Lennox's speech. 

8. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous, etc. 
Devise readings which shall make the line express its obvious 
meaning without deranging its rhythm. Compare Mer. of Ven. v, 
1, 203-20G. What metric defect is there in the line as it stands, 
and how can this defect be remedied? 

35. Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives. Ke- 
construct the line by changing the order of the words without hurt- 
ing the rhythm. So some editors venture to print it. 

38. Hath so exasperate the king. See 1 Hen. IV, v, 1, 72; 
Troi. and Cres. i, 3, 125; Merch. v, 1, 11; Rich. Ill, iii, 7, 127. 
Infer from these instances a principle of Shakespearian usage. 

41. turns me his back. See the same construction, Merchant, 
i, 3, 85; Meas. for Meas. ii, 1, 121; Jul. Cses. i, 2, 267; iii, 3, 
20. 

What new and all-important interest is introduced with this 
scene into the play? 



102 NOTES. 

ACT IV. 

Scene 1. 

1-3. Note the animals to which the witches appeal as their 
attendants or familiars, and recall the similar references by two of 
the witches in Act I, Scene 1. — Harpier cannot be understood. 
It is usual to think of it as meaning harpy. 

6. What is lacking to the verse, and how can the defect be 
supplied ? 

II. See Two Gent, i, 2, 30; Merchant, ii, 9, G3 ; Jul. Caes. 
iii, 1, 171. 

24. ravined may mean simply ravenous, by a confusion of 
voice common in Shakespearian English ; or it may mean, glutted 
with prey. 

50. With this line compare Two Gent, ii, 7, 2 ; Meas. for Meas. 
v, 1, 48 ; Othello, i, 3, 105 ; Ham. v, 1, 279, and infer Shakespeare's 
usage of the two pronunciations of conjure. 

52-60. Express in brief phrase the gist of all these though 
clauses. 

78. Had I three ears, I 'Id hear thee. Schiller has it, — Had 
I three ears, thou wouldst fill them. In what tone does Macbeth 
utter these words? Where does he get his Avhimsey of three ears ? 

84. From what range of human interests are the figures in this 
line and in 99 taken? Refer to iii, 2, 49. Find other instances 
in the plays of metaphors drawn from the same source. 

III. Come like shadows, so depart. Come is evidently used 
as in i, 3, 144. 

On the subject of prophesying by means of a glass, see Meas. 
for Meas. ii, 2, 95. 

122. What word in the line can best be expanded to fill the 
measure? 

Reckon up the several metrically distinct forms in which the 
language of the scene is cast, considering the kind of rhythm, — as 
to whether it is iambic or trochaic, — the number of accents to the 
verse, and the presence or the absence of ryme. Are the speeches 



ACT IV. SCENES II., III. 103 

of the witches consistently in the same verse-form, either in this 
scene, or in the play at large? 

What change in Macbeth's feelings and purposes have the events 
of the scene produced ? Explain the prophecies made by the 
witches in their bearings upon history. The play belongs to the 
year 1G00. What motives did the poet therefore find in contemp- 
orary interest for letting his witches make such prophecies ? 

Scene 2. 

22. Each way and move. The expression seems singularly 
inept, but there is no help for it. Devise various ways of making 
the passage read satisfactorily Avithout hurting the verse. 

65-66. An instance of a clause in itself somewhat obscure made 
perfectly clear by its connection. 

70. How would this infinitive be expressed in modern usage? 
Look up other instances of peculiar infinitives in the plays. See 
Mac. v, 2, 23; Errors, v, 1, 25; Mac. ii, 2, 73; iii, 2, 19; Shrew, 
iii, 2, 27; M. of V. i, 1, 154. 

73. What other words similar in ending to whither have you 
had occasion to treat in the same way that you must treat this word 
here ? 

Compare, as to their dramatic purpose, the little boy's prattle 
with his mother, and the soliloquy of the porter at the time of the 
murder of Duncan. How is the immense tragical effectiveness of 
the scene produced ? 

Note where the language of the dialogue quits the verse-form. 
Does this change seem to you casual or designed ? Give your 
reasons. 

Scene 3. 

4. bestride is here used in a purely figurative sense, without 
any shade of its literal meaning, and signifies merely protect. The 
figure is derived from the act of a warrior standing over the body 
of a fallen friend to protect it from the enemy. See bestride in 
its literal sense, Richard II, v, 5, 79, and Cymbeline, iv, 4, 38; 
in its purely figurative sense again, 2 Henry IV, i, 1, 207; and in 



104 NOTES. 

its passage from the literal sense to the figurative, Errors, v, 1, 
192. The Greek verb a/x(j)i(3aivcj developed the same secondary 
meaning, as in Iliad, i, 37. 

8. yelled out like syllable of dolor. Careless readers, mis- 
apprehending the sense, and unused to the adjective like standing 
apart from its complement, are very apt to give to like in this pas- 
sage the wrong inflection. See Winter's Tale, ii, 3, 189 ; Two 
Gent, i, 3, 69; Othello, ii, 1, 16. See also Paradise Lost, i, 527, 
and compare Comus, 634. 

15. and wisdom To offer up, etc. What is it that is lacking to 
the phrase ? Supply it. 

19. may recoil in an imperial charge : may yield to such temp- 
tation as a sovereign may offer ; — on the principle that every 
man has his price. Be careful where you put the stress of inflec- 
tion in this sentence. 

56. How many syllables has devil in this instance ? Infer 
Shakespeare's usage in regard to this word from the following 
passages in this play: — i, 3, 107; ii, 2, 55; iii, 4,60; iv, 3, 129; 
v, 3, 11; v, 7, 8. Look up Milton's practice: — P. L. i, 373; ii, 
496 ; iii, 613 ; iv, 502 ; iv, 846 ; ix, 188 ; x, 878. 

62. All continent impediments. On the meaning of continent 
compare L. L. Lost, i, 1, 262; Ant. and Cleo. iv, 14, 40. 

80. Desire his jewels and this other's house. Describe this 
peculiar use of the pronoun. See the same idiom in Merch. of 
Ven. iv, 1, 54, 55; Sonnet xxix, 6. 

89. portable : so in Lear, iii, 6, 115. 

93. On the accent of perseverance compare Troi. and Ores, iii, 
3, 150; Hamlet, i, 2, 92; Dream, iii, 2, 237. 

97. The line may be read with six accents, or it may be reduced 
within the five-accent measure. How would you so reduce it ? 

135. At a point. See Coriol. v, 4, 64; Ham. i, 2, 200; Lear, 
i, 4, 347. 

142. On the royal custom of touching for the king's evil see 
Macaulay's History, Chap, xiv, and the references he there gives 
to other sources of information. 

The Shakespearian meaning of presently it is always necessary 
to bear in mind. 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 105 

170. A modern ecstasy. In ii, 3, 2, we saw old used familiarly 
to amplify the moaning of a noun. Here, on the other hand, we 
have modem used seriously as a disparaging and belittling epithet. 
This is its invariable use in Shakespeare. See As You Like It, 
ii, 7, 150; All's Well, ii, 3,2. It will be found to mean, — com- 
monplace, trivial, trite. 

Ecstasy here stands for a degree of mental excitement much 
below its wonted pitch of meaning in Shakespearian usage. See 
note on iii, 2, 22. 

173. The or in the expression or ere must not be confounded 
with the disjunctive particle or, which, though having the same 
spelling, has a very different origin and history. The or in or ere 
is one of the forms into which the Old English aer, meaning before, 
developed in the Middle English period, and which is represented 
in Modern English by the first syllable of early, by the form ere, 
and by the superlative erst. The simple or, meaning before, is 
frequent in Chaucer, as in Duchesse, 228, — 

For I ne might, for bote ne bale, 
Slepe, or I had red this tale, 

and is clearly used at least once by Shakespeare, Cymbeline, ii, 4, 
14. The combination or ever appears in the Bible, — Or ever the 
silver cord be loosed, — and in Hamlet, i, 2, 183; and the combi- 
nation or ere is in Shakespeare of more frequent occurrence. Dr. 
Murray regards the ere, thus used in connection with or, as a form 
of ever, the expression then being analogous to whenever, however, 
etc. Another explanation of the ere, in or ere, makes it the modern 
form of or itself, or ere thus being one Avord used twice in different 
forms. In either case the expression means simply before. 

177. Lookup the other places in the play where the word chil- 
dren occurs, and see if it is to be pronounced anywhere else as it 
must be here. 

195. On the curious relation between the words latch and catch 
see Murray's New Oxford Dictionary, under catch. 

225. naught that I am. See Rom. and Jul. iii, 2, 87; Lear, 
ii, 4, 136 ; Proverbs xx, 14. 



106 NOTES. 

236. What verb-form that is lost to modern English do you find 
here and in v, 2, 25, 27, 28? 

240. Recall the very similar proverbial expression used earlier 
in the play by Macbeth. 



ACT V. 

Scene 1. 

86. My mind she has mated. Remember that mate is two dis- 
tinct words, differing widely in origin and meaning. See Shrew, 
i, 1, 58; 2 Hen. VI, iii, 1, 265. 

Can you give the poet's possible reasons for casting the dialogue 
of this scene in prose, and then for bringing back to verse tlfe final 
speech of the doctor ? Would you describe the tone of feeling in 
this scene as being raised above, or as being depressed below, the 
general level of the play ? 

Scene 2. 

3. Revenges. Compare Mac. iii, 1, 122; Lear, iv, 6, 35; 
Rich. Ill, iv, 1, 25; Pericles, i, 1, 74; Two Gent, i, 3, 48, 49; 
Hen. VIII, iii, 1, 68. 

5. Excite the mortified man. Mortified has in the language of 
Shakespeare a meaning very different from its usual modern one. 
Infer the Shakespearian meaning from Macduff's description of 
Malcolm's mother, iv, 3, 109-111, and from the speeches of King, 
Longaville, Dumain, and Biron, in Love's Labor's Lost, i, 1, 1-48. 
See also Hen. V, i, 1, 26, and Merchant, i, 1, 82. The passage 
must be read as if there were an even before the mortified. Ex- 
press in a single word the essential idea of the metaphor, the 
bleeding and the grim alarm. Why is the metaphor more effec- 
tive than the single word ? 

8. file. Recall another instance of the use of this word in the 
same sense earlier in the play. Recall also a verb file with a wholly 
different meaning. For a third file see Twelfth Night, iii, 3, 5. 

15. He cannot buckle his distempered cause Within the belt 
of rule. The passage becomes perfectly simple if we are entitled 



ACT V. SCENES III., IV. 107 

to consider cause as meaning the collective body of partisans de- 
fending a cause. But though the word is common in Shakespeare, 

it is impossible to find another instance which this meaning will 
suit. 

10-17. murders sticking on his hands. Recall the other 
instances in the play of the employment of this motive, and con- 
sider it as to its dramatic effectiveness. 

Scene 3. 

11. loon, the same word as the one we find with a different 
spelling, Othello, ii, 3, 95, and Pericles, iv, 6, 19. 

15. patch. Remember the character which Shylock gives 
Launcelot, and Puck's report to Oberon of the tricks he has played 
on Bottom and Titania. 

20-28. What does this speech suggest as to the time that has 
been occupied by the events of the play? Have there been any 
distinct points in the play, at which considerable portions of time 
could be conceived as having elapsed ? 

Name the traits of character in Macbeth which this speech 
reveals. 

35. moe horses. The form moe, or mo, from the Anglo Saxon 
indeclinable ma, existed in Elizabethan English side by side with 
more, from the declined comparative mora. The usage of Shake- 
speare's time tended to distinguish the two forms in meaning, 
making moe the comparative of many, and more the comparative 
of much. Alexander Gill, Milton's schoolmaster at St. Paul's, in a 
treatise on English grammar published in 1619, compared many 
moe most, much more most. Shakespeare is consistent in his use 
of moe. See Caesar, ii, 1, 72; Tempest, ii, 1, 133; M. of V. i, 
1, 108; Coriol. ii, 3, 132. 

Skirr. See the same word differently used, Hen. V, iv, 7, 64. 
See also line 56 below. 

Scene 4. 

14-16. ShoAvhow the speech exhibits Macduff in strong contrast 
to Macbeth, whose career is being wrecked by the security that the 
witches, the instruments of darkness, have instilled in his mind. 



108 NOTES. 



Scene 5. 

1-28. Consider the subject of Macbeth's first speech, 1-7, and 
his mood of mind in it. Then note the course of thought to which 
he is led by hearing the cry of the women ; and finally observe 
into what new channel his moralizings are turned by the announce- 
ment of the death of the queen, and in what temper he proceeds 
to speak. Do these speeches reveal to us the character of Macbeth 
in any more pleasing and human aspect than that in which we have 
hitherto seen it in the course of the play? 

As the poet is notably loose in his use of the auxiliaries should 
and would, Ave are justified in reading line 17 as if it were, — She 
would bave died hereafter. With this piece of moralizing compare 
the language of Brutus, Jul. Caes. iii, 1, 100, 101. 

11. my fell of hair. The only instance in which the poet 
applies the word fell to a human being ; but see As You Like It, 
iii, 2, 55. 

24. Allusions to the stage are frequent in the poet's works. 
Recall two others in earlier parts of this play. 

42. In the expression, I pull in resolution, to what part of 
speech does in belong, and on what word must the chief accent of 
the clause be placed ? From what action is the metaphor taken? 
Why do the readings that have been suggested, — I pall or / pale, 
in resolution, find favor with some editors? If we adopt either of 
the readings, pall or pale, where will the accent have to be placed? 
To what part of speech does in belong in that case? 

51. The word alarum has an interesting origin. Consider its 
relation to alarm. 

Scene 6. 

7. Make a collection of the various non-modern forms of con- 
ditional and interrogative sentences that you may meet with. See, 
e.g., besides this passage, ii, 1, 26; iii, 1, 26; iii, 1, 19. 

Scene 7. 

1-2. The expression was evidently a familiar one to frequenters 
of the bear-garden. See Lear, iii, 7, 54. 



ACT V. SCENE VIII. 109 

11. Evidently, not all contractions that must be made in the 
reading are made obvious to the eye by the punctuation. Compare 
this line Avith line 5 above. 

18. Compare Jul. Caes. iv, 1, 23. 

20. Compare As You Like It, i, 2, 25G. 

28. Explain the paradox. 

Scene 8. 

1. Recall instances of such Roman fools. 

9. the intrenchant air. Similarly, we have had sightless, i, 7, 
23; careless, i, 4, 11; sensible, ii, 1, 36. What peculiarity have 
these adjectives in common? Compare Jul. Caes. i, 3, 18. 

34. damned be him. The Elizabethan public appears to have 
been quite indifferent in the matter of cases, provided the language 
remained clear. Do you see any metric difference between be him 
in this instance and be he in line 47 below? 

41. See note on v, 7, 11. 

42. Comment on the phrase, unshrinking station. 
50. Knolled. See As You Like It, ii, 7, 114. 

53. See note on iii, 1, 44. 

64. See note on iv, 2, 70. 

70. By self and violent hands. Examine the following pas- 
sages, and make the necessary inference regarding the word self: 
Henry V, i, 1, 1 ; Errors, v, 1, 10; Cymb. i, 6, 122; Merchant, 
i, 1, 148; Richard II, iii, 2, 166; Lear, iv, 3, 36. 



Immediately upon finishing a thorough study of the play in 
detail, it will be a good time to read it rapidly as a whole, in 
order to view its parts more closely in relation with each 
other, and to feel more profoundly, as a single impression, 
its great dramatic movement. In connection with this second 
reading, such questions as the following may be taken in 
hand, either for oral discussion in the class, or as topics for 
compositions by individual pupils : — 

Is the play to be regarded as a tragedy of guilt or as a tragedy 



110 NOTES. 

of fate ? Compare it in this respect with any other tragedies 
you have read, as with Cossar, Hamlet, Lear, Othello. 

Give in outline the career of Macbeth, showing the influ- 
ences under which he changed from the Macbeth of the second 
scene of Act I to the demon of the end of the play. 

For what real elements of human life may we consider the 
witches as standing ? Contrast their influence upon Macbeth 
with their influence upon Banquo. What indications does 
Banquo show that the witches have had any effect on him 
at all? 

Describe Macbeth as influenced by his wife and as sharing 
with her the guilt of crime. Does her career show, equally 
with his, an advance in criminality ? In what form do we see 
retribution come to her ? 

Portray, so far as the play furnishes the necessary data,, 
the character of Duncan. What traits of character does the 
play enable us to ascribe to Malcolm? 

Compare the play of Macbeth with any other of the great 
tragedies you may have read, — as Lear, Othello, Hamlet, 
Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, — as regards rapidity of 
movement, complication of plot, multiplicity of characters. 
Note also the relative length of Macbeth. 

Make a list of the birds mentioned in this play, and describe 
the several purposes which these mentions are made to sub- 
serve. 

Select several of the most impressive figures of speech you 
find in the play, and comment upon them, to show the reasons 
of their effectiveness. 

Make a study of Shakespeare's diction, showing some of the 
causes of its marvellous power. 



ENGLISH. 



The Academy Series of English Classics 

Substantially bound in boards, and issued at a uniform price of 20 cents. 

THE works selected for this series are such as have gained a 
conspicuous and enduring place in literature ; nothing is 
admitted either trivial in character or ephemeral in interest. 

Each volume is edited by a teacher of reputation, whose name 
is a guaranty of sound and judicious annotation. 

It is the aim of the Notes to furnish assistance only where it 
is absolutely needed, and, in general, to permit the author to be 
his own interpreter. 

All the works in the Series (excepting Webster's Reply to 
Hayne) are printed without mutilation or abridgment. 

Though in typography, in paper, and in mechanical execution, 
the books reach the highest standard, each volume, containing 
from 80 to 140 pages, is published at a uniform price of twenty 
cents. 

The following is a list of the books that have already appeared. 
Other volumes are in preparation, and will be announced in due 
time. 

Arnold. Essays in Criticism. Edited by Susan S. Sheridan. 

Burke. Conciliation with the Colonies. Edited by Professor C. B. 

Bradley. 
Webster. Reply to Hayne. Edited by Professor C. B. Bradley. 

Addison. De Coverley Papers. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Carlyle. Essay on Burns. Edited by Henry W. Boynton. 

MACAULAY. Essay on Addison. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Chatham. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Clive. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Milton. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Johnson. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Warren Hastings. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
Shakespeare. Julius Caesar. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Macbeth. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 



ENGLISH. 



Orations and Arguments 

Edited by Professor C. B. Bradley, University of California. i2mo, 
cloth, 385 pages. Price, #1.00. 

The following speeches are contained in the book : — 

Burke: Webster: 

On Conciliation with the Col- The Reply to Hayne. 

onies, and Speech before the Elec- Macaulay- 

tors at Bristol. _ , " , 

„ On the Reform Bill of 18^2. 

Chatham: „ J 

_ . . . „ . Calhoun: 

On American Affairs. n , * 

_. On the Slavery Ouestion. 

Erskine: _ ~ 

T n c* 1 a i r* Seward: 

In the Stockdale Case. _ i , T .,,«„. 

_ On the Irrepressible Conflict. 

Lincoln : _ 

The Gettysburg Address. 

IN making this selection, the test applied to each speech was 
that it should be in itself memorable, attaining its distinc- 
tion through the essential qualities of nobility and force of ideas, 
and that it should be, in topic, so related to the great thoughts, 
memories, or problems of our own time as to have for us still an 
inherent and vital interest. 

The speeches thus chosen have been printed from the best 
available texts, without change, save that the spelling has been 
made uniform throughout, and that three of the speeches — 
those of Webster, Calhoun, and Seward — have been shortened 
somewhat by the omission of matters of merely temporal or 
local interest. The omitted portions have been summarized for 
the reader, whenever they bear upon the main argument. 

The Notes aim to furnish the reader with whatever help is 
necessary to the proper appreciation of the speeches ; to avoid 
bewildering him with mere subtleties and display of erudition ; 
and to encourage in him habits of self-help and familiarity with 
sources of information. 

A special feature of this part of the work is a sketch of the 
English Constitution and Government, intended as a general 
introduction to the English speeches. 

The collection includes material enough to permit of a varied 
selection for the use of successive classes in the schools. 



ENGLISH. 3 



Professor J. M. Hart, Cornell University: Bradley's Orations and Argu- 
ments is a good book. I am glad to have it, and shall take pleasure in 
recommending its use. The thought of bringing together a few of the 
best speeches by the best Englishmen and Americans, in a volume of 
moderate size, is an excellent one. The selection is judicious, and as 
representative as the limits permit. The annotation seems to me to be 
sound. I am especially pleased with the general notes on the English 
Constitution and Government. They ought to clear up a good many 
puzzles and obscurities for the students. 

Professor T. W. Hunt, College of New Jersey, Princeton: It is a book that 
will be of practical service in the sphere of argumentation and forensic 
address. The notes add much to its value. 

Professor J. H. Penniman, University of Pennsylvania: It seems to be an 
excellent book, and will prove a great aid to teachers of rhetoric and com- 
position. The literary side of oratory is prominently set forth by the 
selections chosen. 

Byron Groce, Boston Latin School: It is a remarkably fine book; fine in 
selection, in editing, in print, paper, and form. I wish I might have 
copies for one of my classes. I long ago publicly urged that a larger 
selection of orations be given in our literature courses, which, though 
perhaps not too literary, certainly needed the variety such selections as 
these you publish will give. 

Wilson Farrand, Newark Academy, N.J.: The book is admirable in every 
way — selection of speeches, annotation, and mechanical execution. The 
special excellence of the notes seems to me to be in their historical sugges- 
tiveness, and the special value of the book in its connecting literary and 
historical study. 

E. H. Lewis, University of Chicago: The principles on which these selec- 
tions have been made are thoroughly sound. The notes are adequate, but 
not too full. The book is a most available and useful one. 

Professor Edward E. Hale, Jr., Iowa State University, Iowa City: I have 
read the larger part of it with great pleasure. I think it will serve its 
purpose very well, for the selections are excellent, and so are the notes. 
The book supplies good material which cannot easily be found else- 
where in so compact a form, and which ought to be a great help to many 
teachers. 

Professor H. N. Snyder, Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C.: These judi- 
cious selections, and helpful and interesting notes, make an exceedingly 
useful book. 



ENGLISH. 



Studies in English Composition 

By Harriet C. Keeler, High School, Cleveland. Ohio, and Emma 
C. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. i2mo, cloth, 210 pages. Price, 80 cents. 

THIS book is the outgrowth of experience in teaching compo- 
sition, and the lessons which it contains have all borne the 
actual test of the class-room. Intended to meet the wants of 
those schools which have composition as a weekly exercise in 
their course of study, it contains an orderly succession of topics 
adapted to the age and development of high school pupils, to- 
gether with such lessons in language and rhetoric as are of con- 
stant application in class exercises. 

The authors believe that too much attention cannot be given 
to supplying young writers with good models, which not only 
indicate what is expected, and serve as an ideal toward which 
to work, but stimulate and encourage the learner in his first 
efforts. For this reason numerous examples of good writing 
have been given, and many more have been suggested. 

The primal idea of the book is that the pupil learns to write 
by writing; and therefore that it is of more importance to get 
him to write than to prevent his making mistakes in writing. 
Consequently, the pupil is set to writing at the very outset ; the 
idea of producing something is kept constantly uppermost, and 
the function of criticism is reserved until after something has 
been done which may be criticised. 

J. W. Stearns, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Wisconsin: It strikes 
me that the author of your " Studies in English Composition " touches 
the gravest defect in school composition work when she writes in her pref- 
ace : "One may as well grasp a sea-anemone, and expect it to show its 
beauty, as ask a child to write from his own experience when he expects 
every sentence to be dislocated in order to be improved." In order to 
improve the beauty of the body, we drive out the soul in our extreme for- 
mal criticisms of school compositions. She has made a book which 
teaches children to write by getting them to write often and freely ; and if 
used with the spirit which has presided over the making of it, it will prove 
a most effective instrument for the reform of school composition work. 

Albert G. Owen, Superintendent, Aft on, Iowa: It is an excellent text. I 
am highly pleased with it. The best of the kind I have yet seen. 



ENGLISH. 



Introduction to Theme=Writing 

By J. B. Fletcher, Harvard University, and Professor G. R. Car- 
penter, Columbia College. i6mo, cloth, 136 pages. Price, 60 cents. 

THE lectures that form the basis of this book were delivered 
by Mr. Fletcher before the Freshman class at Harvard Col- 
lege in the spring of 1893. These have been rearranged, with ad- 
ditional matter by Professor Carpenter. The result is a text-book 
for students who have completed the introductory course in rhet- 
oric usually prescribed at the beginning of the Freshman year. 

The fundamental idea of the book is that in practising any of 
the various kinds of composition the student must decide : — 

1. Just what treatment will be most appropriate to the sub- 
ject-matter in general. 

2. What treatment will most clearly bring out his own indi- 
vidual ideas or impressions of this matter. 

3. What treatment will make this subject most clear to the 
particular class of readers or hearers which he has in mind. 

Letter-writing, Translation, Description, Criticism, Exposi- 
tion, and Argument are each treated in a clear and concise 
manner, and exercises on each subject are freely introduced. 

Selections from Carlyle 

Edited by Henry W. Boynton, Instructor in English in Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. i2mo, cloth, 283 pages. Price, 75 cents. 

THIS volume includes material adequate for the elementary 
study of Carlyle in his earliest and most fruitful period. 
It contains the Essays on Burns, on History, on Bos well's Life 
of Johnson, and selections from Heroes and Hero-Worship. 

The Notes are planned in the main to give aid rather than 
information or opinion, and by frequent quotation of illustrative 
passages to make the author his own interpreter. 

The Essay on Burns, with the Notes belonging to it, is 
reprinted to form one of the volumes of the Academy Classics 
Series, advertised on page 1 of this catalogue. 



ENGLISH. 



DeQufncey's Essays on Style, Rhetoric, 
and Language 

Edited by Professor Fred N. Scott, University of Michigan. i2mo, 
276 pages. Price, 60 cents. 

THE essays selected are those which deal directly with the 
theory of literature. The appendix contains such passages 
from DeQuincey's other writings as will be of most assistance 
to the student. The introduction and notes are intended to 
re-enforce, not to forestall, research. 

Principles of Success in Literature 

By George Henry Lewes. Edited with Introduction and Notes by 
Professor Fred N. Scott. i2mo, 159 pages. Price, 50 cents. 

THE object of reprinting this admirable little treatise on lit- 
erature is to make it available for classes in rhetoric and 
literary criticism. Scarcely any other work will be found so 
thoroughly sound in principles, and so suggestive and inspiring. 
The value of the present edition is greatly increased by the 
excellent introduction by Professor Scott, and by a full index, 
which adds much to its convenience. 

Professor 0. B. Clarke, Indiana University, Bloomington : Your reprint of 
Lewes's articles on " The Principles of Success in Literature " puts an- 
other sharp and serviceable tool into the hands of the teacher and student 
of the art of composition. Professor Scott, as well as yourselves, deserves 
the thanks of all who care for truth and force in working. 

Spencer's Philosophy of Style # Wright's 
Essay on Style 

Edited by Professor Fred N. Scott. 121110, 92 pages. Price, 45 cents. 

THE plan has been followed of providing a biographical and 
critical introduction, an index, and a few notes, — the latter 
designed to provoke discussion or to furnish clews for further 
investigation. 



ENGLISH. 



Paragraph- Writing 

By Professor F. N. Scott, University of Michigan, and Professor J. 
V. Denney, Ohio State University. i2mo, 304 pages. Price, #1.00. 

I^HE principles embodied in this work were developed and put 
in practice by its authors at the University of Michigan sev- 
eral years ago. Its aim is to make the paragraph the basis of a 
method of composition, and to present all the important facts of 
rhetoric in their application to it. 

In Part I. the nature and laws of the paragraph are presented ; 
the structure and function of the isolated paragraph are dis- 
cussed, and considerable space is devoted to related paragraphs ; 
that is, those which are combined into essays. 

Part II. is a chapter on the theory of the paragraph intended 
for teachers and advanced students. 

Part III. contains copious material for class work, selected 
paragraphs, suggestions to teachers, lists of subjects for composi- 
tions & (about two thousand), and helpful references of many kinds. 

The Revised Edition contains a chapter on the Rhetoric of the 
Paragraph, in which will be found applications of the paragraph- 
idea to the sentence, and to the constituent parts of the sentence, 
so far as these demand especial notice. The new material thus 
provided supplies, in the form of principles and illustrations, as 
much additional theory as the student of Elementary Rhetoric 
needs to master and apply, in order to improve the details of 
his paragraphs in unity, clearness, and force. 

Professor J. M. Hart, Cornell University : The style of the writers is ad- 
mirable for clearness and correctness They have produced an uncom- 
monly sensible text-book. ... For college work it will be hard to beat. 
I know of no other book at all comparable to it for freshman drill. 

Professor Charles Mills Gayley, University of California: Paragraph- 
Writing is the best thing of its kind, — the only systematic and exhaustive 
effort to present a cardinal feature of rhetorical training to the educational 
world. 

The Dial, March, 1894 : Paragraph-Writing is one of the really practical 

books on Enelish composition A book that successfully illustrate? 

the three articles of the rhetorician's creed, — theory, example, and practice. 



ENGLISH. 



From Milton to Tennyson 

Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. Du Pont Syle, Uni- 
versity of California. i2mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, $1. 00. 

IN this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within 
the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, 
descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be re- 
quired to read critically for entrance to college. From the 
nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been 
selected as are within the range of the understanding and the 
sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is 
given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of 
Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space 
have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this 
volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets 
from the scope of this work. 

The low price of the book, together with its strong and attrac- 
tive binding, make it especially desirable for those teachers who 
read with their classes even a small part of the poems it contains. 

President D. S. Jordan, Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Cat.: I have re- 
ceived the copy of Mr. Syle's book, " From Milton to Tennyson," and have 
looked it over with a great deal of interest. It seems to be an excellent 
work for the purpose. The selections seem well adapted to high school 
use, and the notes are wisely chosen and well stated. 

Professor Henry A. Beers, Yale University: The notes are helpful and 
suggestive. What is more, — and what is unusual in text-book annota- 
tions, — they are interesting and make very good reading ; not at all school- 
masterish, but really literary in their taste and discernment of nice points. 

Professor Elmer E. Wentworth, Vassar College: It is a most attractive 
book in appearance outward and inward, the selections satisfactory and 
just, the notes excellent. In schools where less time is given than in ours, 
no other book known to me, me judiee, will be so good. I wish to com- 
mend the notes again. 

Wm. E. Griffis, Ithaca, NY. • The whole work shows independent research 
as well as refined taste and a repose of judgment tnat is admirable. The 
selected pieces are not overburdened with critical notes, while the sugges- 
tions for comparison and criticism, to be made by the student himself, are 
very valuable. 



ENGLISH. 







Miss Isabel Graves, Wcllesley College, Wellesley, Mass.: I am pleased 
with the appearance of the book, and find that the selection of masterpieces 
gives the desired variety. The notes are fortunately directed against 
some prejudices, and must prove suggestive. 

W. E. Sargent, Hebron Academy, Hebron, Me.: The book is a gem — just 
enough selections, and the very best ones of each author. 

F. A. Tupper, Principal of High School. Qnincy, Mass.: Mr. Syle's "From 
Milton to Tennyson" is a most admirable book in conception and execu- 
tion. The selections, both of authors and of poems, evince true poetic 
feeling and rare taste. The sketches, notes, and bibliography everywhere 
bear marks of sound and scientific teaching power. The book is adapted 
not only to schools and colleges, but also to the library and the home. I 
feel indebted to the editor of this book, and in expressing my approval, 
1 am making only a slight return for the profit derived from the volume. 

Professor Edward S. Parsons, Colorado College: I find the book extremely 
valuable for the wisdom of its selections ; for its comprehensive, yet care- 
fully chosen bibliography ; and for its pointed and entertaining style. 



The following 

MILTON, by the 
DRYDEN . . . 



poets are represented : — 



POPE . . . 

THOMSON . 

JOHNSON . 

GRAY . . . 
GOLDSMITH 

COWPER . 

BURNS . . 

COLERIDGE 
BYRON . . 



KEATS . . 
SHELLEY 

WORDSWORTH 



MACAULAY 
CLOUGH . . 



ARNOLD . . 
BROWNING 
TENNYSON 



L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and a Selection from the 

Sonnets. 
Epistle to Congreve, Alexander's Feast, Character of a Good 

Parson. 
Epistles to Mr. Jervas, to Lord Burlington, and to Augustus. 
Winter. 

Vanity of Human Wishes. 

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and The Bard. 
Deserted Village. 
Winter Morning's Walk. 
Cotter's Saturday Night, Tarn O'Shanter, and a Selection 

from the Songs. 
Ancient Mariner. 
Isles of Greece and Selections from Childe Harold, Manfred, 

and the Hebrew Melodies. 
Eve of St. Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, Sonnet on Chapman's 

Homer. 
Euganean Hills, The Cloud, The Skylark, and the Two 

Sonnets on the Nile. 
Laodamia, The Highland Girl,Tintern Abbey, The Cuckoo, 

The Ode to a Skylark, The Milton Sonnet, The Ode to 

Duty, and the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 
Horatius. 

Two Ships, the Prologue to the Mari Magno, and The Law- 
yer's First Tale. 
Scholar-Gypsy and the Forsaken Merman. 
Transcript from Euripides (Balaustion's Adventure). 
OZnone, the Morte D'Arthur, The Miller's Daughter, and a 

Selection from the Songs. 



10 ENGLISH. 



Select Essays of Macaulay 

Edited by Samuel Thurber, Girls' High School, Boston. i2mo, 
205 pages ; cloth, 70 cents ; boards, 50 cents. 

THIS selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bun van,' 
Johnson, Goldsmith, and Madame D'Arblay, thus giv- 
ing illustrations both of Macaulay's earlier and of his later 
style. It aims to put into the hands of high school pupils speci- 
mens of English prose that shall be eminently interesting to 
read and study in class, and which shall serve as models of clear 
and vigorous writing. 

The subjects of the essays are such as to bring them into 
close relation with the study of general English literature. 

The annotation is intended to serve as a guide and stimulus to 
research rather than as a substitute for research. The notes, 
therefore, are few in number. Only when an allusion of Macau- 
lay is decidedly difficult to verify does the editor give the result 
of his own investigations. In all other cases he leads the pupil 
to make investigation for himself, believing that a good method 
in English, as in other studies, should leave as much free play 
as possible to the activity of the learner. 

Historical Essays of Macaulay 

Edited by Samuel Thurber. i2mo, cloth, 394 pages. Price, 80 cents. 

THIS selection includes the essays on Lord Give, Warren 
Hastings, and both those on the Earl of Chatham. The 
text in each case is given entire. A map of India, giving the 
location of places named in the essays, is included. 

The notes are intended to help the pupil to help himself. 
They do not attempt to take the place of dictionary, encyclo- 
paedia, and such histories as are within the reach of ordinary 
students in academies or high schools. When an allusion is not 
easily understood, a note briefly explains it, or at least indicates 
where an explanation may be found. In other cases the pupil 
is expected to rely on his own efforts, and on such assistance as 
his teacher may think wise to give. 



£be Scabemp Series 



OF 



English Classics 



Uniform with this Volume. Price 20 Cents. 



Burke. 


On Conciliation with the Colonies. 


C. I< Bradley, 


Webster. 


Reply to Hayne. 


C. B. Bradley. 


Addison. 


De Coverley Papers. 


S. Thurber. 


Carlyle. 


Essay on Burns. 


H. W. Boynton. 


Macaulay 


Essay on Addison. 
Essay on Milton. 
Essay on Johnson. 
Essay on Chatham. 
Essay on Clive. 
Essay on Warren Hastings. 


S. Thurber. 


Shakespeare. 


Julius Caesar. 
Macbeth. 
Merchant of Venice. 




Matthew Af no 


ld. Essays in Criticism. 


S. S. Sheridan. 


*' 


Other volumes in preparation. 





ALLYN and BACON, Publishers, 

172, Tremont St., BOSTON. 355, Wabash Ave., CHICAGO. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 092 350 3 



